Wedding Planning for Unordinary Couples

A wedding is a joyous occasion in cultures around the world. While many couples opt for traditional wedding venues like reception and banquet halls, those who walk to the beat of a different drum seek extraordinary measures for their special day.

Consider Katie and Darren McWalters, an English couple who tied the knot 1,000 feet above the ground while they were strapped to the wings of two biplanes.

The bride’s dress fluttered wildly in the wind as the reverend (who flew ahead of the couple) married them over an airborne communications system.

Perhaps that isn’t as weird as the latest vogue in China. Despite discouragement from China’s more conservative leadership, many newlyweds are having their wedding photos taken while in the buff!

The hot trend is catching on as young brides wearing nothing but a veil and a smile pose for pictures that will end up in their wedding albums for all posterity (and posteriors) to behold!

If you’re looking for weird wedding venues, Seattle, Washington, offers several for those who desire the bizarre.

For Amber Arnell, Jeff Hurt, and Elvis impersonator, Shane Cobane, the seedy and filthy Seattle underground was the site of their wedding. The wedding ceremony began when Elvis in a blue studded jumpsuit and shades crooned into a mike: “Wise men say, only fools rush in.”

Seattle’s sprawling netherworld of leaky pipes, ruined gambling and prostitution dens and rat droppings would seem a most unlikely spot to exchange wedding vows.

Another popular and rather unusual wedding venue in Seattle is the “Ring of Life” exhibit at the Aquarium.

The happy couple stands in the middle of a circular tank of sensually pulsating jellyfish, exchanging their wedding vows as the vibrating critters search for lunch. For an evening weekend wedding, the betrothed pair can expect to spend about $2,000 for the honor of getting married, jellyfish style.

If you don’t like jellyfish and the Underground isn’t really your thing, you can make your wedding unique by having it officiated by someone or something a little bit…different.

The first robot-officiated wedding was made possible thanks to Hanool Robotics. In 2007, Seok Gyeong-Jae was married by the South Korean mechanical master of wedding ceremonies, Tiro the Robot. Gyeong-Jae was one of Tiro’s designers.

If far out is the place you want to be but you haven’t arrived yet, consider a wedding in space.

The first-ever space wedding took place in August of 2003. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malanchenko married US citizen Ekaterina Dmitriyeva in a video-teleconference wedding ceremony where the bride on earth stood next to a cardboard cutout of the groom and they exchanged vows while he was in orbit!

In 2001 in Quebec, a couple exchanged wedding rings in a hotel made of ice!

The champagne glasses were also made of ice.  The newlyweds claimed that snow and ice symbolized the purity of marriage (It is hoped they never live in a tropical climate.)

Anything and nothing is sacred when it comes to personalizing a wedding ceremony.

Proceed at your own risk, but remember that the wedding memories you create will last a lifetime!