Aboard Weightless Flight, Couple Says ‘I Do’
Posted on: Monday, 22 June 2009, 05:35 CDT
Thousands of feet above the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, New York City couple Erin Finnegan and Noah Fulmor exchanged vows in the first ever weightless wedding held in zero gravity conditions, Reuters reported.
The wedding party in jump suits of blue attended the bride who was adorned in white with miniature planet-like earrings, while the groom sported a tuxedo with spacecraft-shaped cuff links.
Inside G-Force One, a specially transformed Boeing 727-200 aircraft operated by a company providing weightless flight experiences called Zero Gravity Corp, the couple swapped “I do’s” and shared an awkward kiss all while flying weightless.
"It was weirder than I expected. ... I've been to a lot of boring weddings, so I wanted to do something different," said Finnegan, who stylishly fashioned her hairdo with wire so as to keep it from unraveling without the presence of gravity.
By ascending sharply and dropping quickly on several occasions throughout the duration of the one hour flight, the plane practiced parabolic flight tactics, creating a weightless experience outside of space.
It took great effort for the wedding party to coordinate their movements inside the 90-foot-long cushioned “floating zone.” The ceremony commenced after a rough bout of bumping and fumbling in a microgravity environment.
A second-generation U.S. space traveler, and ZERO-G co-founder, Richard Garriott, officiated the one-of-a-kind ceremony.
Fulmor confessed that locking lips with his bride proved to be quite problematic in a weightless environment. Fortunately his specially stiffened tuxedo tails did not float out of control to add to the chaos.
"The physics of the first kiss were off. I could feel where I was going, I knew where I needed to be, but it was hard to reconcile the differences," he told reporters.
"Noah knocked into my nose and I thought it would bleed," Finnegan said.
Although the couple didn’t lose the ring, proceedings were disrupted when an attendee at the wedding lost a wedding band directly from a finger which floated its way into the wedding group creating momentary confusion.
"I've waited my whole life for this ... what I remember most was the feeling of weightlessness, both physically and emotionally," Fulmor said.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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