Love was in the air for a couple from Oklahoma as they exchanged wedding vows aboard a Southwest Airlines plane on April 24.
According to a post on Southwest Airlines’ Facebook page, Pam Patterson and Jeremy Salda were initially scheduled to fly on another airline to their planned Vegas wedding-chapel nuptials.
However, things took a twist after the couple arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and found that their connecting flight to Las Vegas had been canceled.
The couple struck gold after Chris, another passenger booked on the same canceled flight, overheard the couple discussing how they could still make it to the City of Lights in time for their scheduled wedding.
Chris, an ordained minister, offered to marry the couple, and all three of them — with Pam in her full wedding dress — traveled to Dallas Love Field and boarded a Southwest flight heading for Las Vegas.
Things got exciting after Captain Gil, the flight’s pilot, noticed Pam in her wedding dress. Pam told the captain their story and made a joke with him, saying they should get married on the flight.
To Pam’s surprise, the captain liked the idea of the couple getting married aboard the flight and immediately signed off on it. Within minutes, the entire flight crew was ready to host the couple’s wedding, with the passengers filling in as guests.
The crew quickly decorated the cabin with toilet paper streamers. Julie Reynolds, a Southwest flight attendant, stood in as Pam’s Maid of Honor, playing a downloaded version of “Here Comes the Bride” on her cellphone as the bride walked down the aisle.
The stars aligned perfectly for the couple when one of the passengers, who turned out to be a professional photographer, took the wedding photos.
“All these little things just kind of fell into place,” said Pam.
The flight crew and passengers signed an old notebook which was given to the couple at the end of their wedding as a makeshift guestbook.
The ‘heavenly’ wedding took place at 37,000 feet somewhere above the state of Arizona.
