Love was in the air during an SAS flight from Stockholm to New York, as a gay couple from Germany and a lesbian couple from Poland were married by a representative from the European Parliament.
As USAToday reports, after the fasten seat belt signs were turned off and while the plane was still in Swedish airspace, the brief wedding ceremonies took place with a large, heart-shaped floral wreath as backdrop. The two couples were Aleksandar Mijatovic and Shantu Bhattacherjee of Germany and Ewa Tomaszewicz and Gosia Rawińska of Poland.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Sweden since May 1, 2009, and while same-sex couples may enter registered partnerships in Germany, they cannot in Poland. “So this ceremony is not only for us,” said Tomaszewicz, “it’s also a small victory for all those who believe that one day in Poland we’ll have a normal country where everyone who loves each other can just get married.”
For the in-flight wedding, rings and teary personalized vows were exchanged, champagne was poured, toasts were made, a first dance was danced and a multi-course wedding dinner was consumed. Finally, a wedding cake was rolled out to be cut and tasted by the wedding couples before the dessert was served to guests.
SAS isn’t the first airline to perform a same-sex marriage at 35,000 feet. The captain of a Virgin America jet performed a ceremony in Canadian airspace in November, and the airline's founder, Sir Richard Branson, performed a wedding on a San Francisco-to-Las Vegas flight back in 2007.
SAS is owned by the governments of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, which were among the first countries in the world to legalize same-sex marriage or partnerships.
To choose which same-sex couples would be married on the flight, SAS launched a “Love is in the air” social media contest in September. Three hundred couples from around the world entered the contest, many from Poland and other countries where same-sex marriage is forbidden.
More than 450,000 visitors viewed the airline’s contest site and more than 350,000 votes were cast. As top vote-getters, the couples from Germany and Poland each won an in-flight wedding, designer wedding rings, a honeymoon package in New York and Los Angeles and other gifts.
“It’s been like a fairy tale,” said newlywed Bhattacherjee. “Aleksander and I both lost our mothers several years ago. But it’s nice to be married up here, close to them in the clouds where they have the option to be here and be part of the ceremony.”
