Many people feel like they’re walking on air during their wedding, but one couple recently got married with literal clouds beneath their feet.
With an appointment set at a Las Vegas chapel, Pam and Jeremy Salda arrived at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on April 24 dressed and ready for their nuptials. With the bride in her wedding dress and the groom in his suit, the couple waited through delay after delay and soon realized that they would likely miss their chapel appointment.
This could have been the sad conclusion of their would-be wedding day if it weren’t for the kindness of strangers — specifically, a stranger who was also an ordained minister. Another Vegas-bound passenger, Chris Mitcham, had his flight canceled, too, and he offered to help the couple get married if the travel delays caused them to miss the chapel service.
So, the soon-to-be-newlyweds and their new minister friend booked another flight that was leaving from nearby Dallas Love Field Airport.
As they boarded the Southwest flight to Las Vegas with a connection in Phoenix, the pilot greeted the couple and noted their wedding attire. To the pilot’s surprise, Pam Salda said that they were thinking of getting married right there on that plane.
“The captain himself says, ‘I’ve been a pilot for 33 years and 20-plus of that has been with Southwest,'” Pam Salda told ABC News. “‘And never once have I been asked to have a wedding on the plane.'”
Once word spread about the mid-air marriage about to take place, the flight crew and passengers began helping to prepare for the impromptu ceremony. In one of those heartwarming moments of human goodness, people really tried to make this unique situation special for the couple, even though they had never met them before boarding that Southwest flight.
As soon as the plane had reached a safe altitude for walking about the cabin, the flight crew fashioned streamers out of toilet paper, used the plane call lights to create some dramatic lighting and played “Here Comes the Bride” as Pam Salda walked down the airplane aisle to her groom. A flight attendant even stepped in and served as maid-of-honor to the bride.
The Southwest Airlines Facebook page posted about the event, complete with photos of the newlyweds, and dubbed itself “the love airline.”
The passengers-turned-wedding guests also contributed to the festivities. One of the women on board passed around a notebook so that passengers could sign it and wish the newlyweds well.
“She made it a guest book, and it got passed to the entire plane,” Pam Salda told ABC News. “They didn’t just write the names, they wrote sweet notes […] and they wrote their seat number and their name.”
After Mitcham declared the couple married, the flight crew handed out free drinks to all passengers on the plane. The bride and groom fed each other a doughnut that another passenger had offered up as a makeshift wedding cake.
Congratulations to this adventurous couple and cheers to the Southwest team that made their mid-air wedding such a sweet success!
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
