‘Imagine taking a nap and you wake up mid ceremony’: Southwest Flight Interrupted as Couple Gets Married With Plane Full of Witnesses
Nothing says a high-flying wedding quite like getting married at plus 30,000 feet and turning fellow passengers into your witnesses.
A new TikTok video going viral depicts a marriage ceremony taking place literally in the clouds. The video begins with the flight attendant claiming that “Southwest is known as the love airline,” given the handful of other instances that the company facilitated a wedding mid-flight. “And today, love is in the air,” she quips. (Yes, I made the same joke in my opening. No, I’m not sorry.)
The couple on board, named Tina and Roger, then proceeded to walk down the airplane aisle (the dad jokes practically write themselves, huh?)
What ensues, as you can see below, is a heartwarming moment where the couple says their vows and an air hostess pronounces them husband and wife. The bride even tosses the bouquet, though given the confines, it’s more of a lob than a traditional arching throw.
As you can imagine, TikTok users had a field day with this. @jenojenojenoing said out loud what we were all thinking when watching this. “Imagine taking a nap and you wake up mid ceremony.” That must feel like the most jarring return to reality.
“‘Thank you all for being here’ as if they had another choice,” joked another user, while another echoed the same sentiment by writing: “I’ve never seen a wedding hostage situation.”
Wondrous things happen when people realize they have free will and don’t need to be bound by rules of tradition and expedience. And this, as one comment pointed out, is certainly among the “craziest uses” of that human quality so far.
But perhaps most relatable of all was theblackrabbit‘s response. “If I’m forced to attend a wedding mid flight, there BETTER be catering.” You tell ’em, brother.
While the story marks a wholesome moment for the couple and all the other accidental unsuspecting attendees, it does raise an interesting question: can you actually get married on a flight?
Does the law allow you to get married on an airplane?
Simply put, airline pilots and flight attendants don’t have the authority to perform marriages. For a marriage to be legally recognized in the United States, it needs to be performed within the borders of a specific state by an ordained minister, judge, or other designated officiants.
The legal complexity, and perhaps dubiousness, increases when you factor in the flight itself. Determining which state’s laws apply when cruising at above 30,000 feet is not so easy, especially when the location is constantly changing at 500 miles per hour.
Now, if the officiant is properly ordained (and in this case, we don’t know if they are) the couple could theoretically obtain a marriage license before or after an in-flight ceremony. That treats the event as purely ceremonial, but when has legal paperwork ever stopped people from celebrating love and having a bit of fun while they’re at it?
So, there might be a legal workaround to have an official wedding ceremony in the air (especially if you fly only within the borders of a single U.S. state) but people do this for the memory and the story they’ll tell around the dinner table for the rest of their lives, not to avoid a courthouse visit.
(featured image: TikTok/@katrinabadowski)
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