This was published 4 years ago
Budget (airline) wedding: Couple gets married on Jetstar flight
By Lorna Thornber
The couple wed 10,000 metres above the Tasman Sea.
When a trans-Tasman couple couldn't decide on where to get married, they came up with an innovative compromise, tying the knot on a flight midway across the ditch.
Kiwi Cathy Valliant met her now-husband David, an Australian, playing a game called Airport City online.
"Our love of aviation is what brought us together," she says. "We chatted for more than a year and then I got up the courage to call him for his birthday and sing him happy birthday. It just evolved from there."
The couple bonded over their love of aviation.
They first met in person in 2013 when Cathy made her first trip to Australia and, she says, it was literally love at first sight.
"We locked eyes and that was it!"
David planned to propose on a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne some three years later, but his nerves got the better of him, and so he waited until they were alone in the evening instead.
The couple said "I do" about halfway between NZ and Australia.
Cathy says they wanted their wedding to "symbolise our love for aviation, our love for Australia and New Zealand and our love for each other. I thought: I'll be cheeky and ask Jetstar. Without telling Dave, I posted on Jetstar's Facebook page with the ask."
Fortunately, the airline came to the party, arranging for the couple and their wedding party to sit at the front of a flight from Sydney to Auckland.
Jetstar employee Robyn Holt, who is also a marriage celebrant, wed the couple at 37,000 feet (10,000 metres) above the Tasman Sea. The marriage will be legally recognised in Australia.
One has to wonder though: Is the entire wedding party accompanying the couple on their honeymoon?
"It was the most amazing experience and something we will remember for the rest of our lives," Cathy says.
"I wish I'd met David 25 years ago. I feel our lives really started when we met... We definitely love planes. We even have a rule that whoever sees the first commercial flight on any day doesn't cook!"
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