1) Sweetie, let’s take the big plunge!
Falling for you ... a couple abseil as they world weirdest wedding
THESE newlyweds are joining the mile high club ... in front of all their family and friends.
Jiang Dezhang (R), 27, kisses his bride Tie Guangju, 26, while rappelling from a building during their wedding ceremony in Kunming, China,
Well, here’s one of my recurring nightmares. Not getting married - that was great - but standing out on the ledge of a tall building. I’d rather ride in a gyrocopter, or visit that new Grand Canyon skywalk.
Anyway, these two people both work as exterior cleaners of tall buildings, so they decided to incorporate rappelling into their ceremony, because like they don’t get enough of that on regular days. You’ll note in the caption below we’re careful to mention that the groom is the one on the right, just in case you’re confused about which is which.
Anyway, I’ve avoided using most of the tempting references - marriage is a big step, they don’t rappel each other, and so on,
2) mini marathon wedding
Weird weddings ... the mini marathon
YOU often hear of grooms doing a runner ... but rarely with a bride on their back.
These snaps from January 2007 show grooms carrying their brides during a mini marathon celebrating the New Year in China's Hainan province.
3) Mandalorian wedding
Weird weddings ... the Stars Wars fans
The bride and groom grasped one another's dart launcher-clad wrists and stared into each other's starry eyes.
Fifty armour-clad guests, including several "Jedis" and a white caped "Elvis" in a rhinestone-studded ammo belt, stood reverently at attention. A couple of superheroes showed up late.
What better place to hold a Star Wars-themed wedding than a green patch of grass just outside the famed Comic-Con convention where thousands of fans have congregated this week to revel in all manner of superhero and sci-fi lore?
Friday's wedding ceremony, based on the language, costume and lore of a fictional Mandalorian race in the Star Wars movies, was the brain child of Tenille Kuhlman, 30, and Thomas Kuhlman, 39, avid fans who decided that the convention was a perfect place to gather far-flung members of their close-knit Star Wars fan club to celebrate their special day.
The couple met online two years ago, said Tenille Kuhlman, who said she was at first was hesitant to embrace the Mandalorian lifestyle. "When I met him I knew what every Joe Blow knows about 'Star Wars.' It just sort of turned into life for us."
Last winter they married in a civil ceremony and settled in Yuma, Arizona, yet Thomas Kuhlman longed to receive a Mandalorian blessing of their union. "I said, 'Hey, that's never going to happen,'" Tenille Kuhlman said.
But according to clan creed, Mandalorians don't make threats, they make promises. The wedding quickly began to take shape.
Yet 10 minutes before the ceremony was to begin, despite her careful planning, Tenille found herself still wearing her "I Love Nerds" T-shirt, nervous and without make-up.
Friends stepped in to help. "Hey, come on guys I've got jobs for you to do!" one Mandalorian shouted. "Bounty hunters are all about jobs!" an eager warrior replied.
With that friends quickly set up a makeshift arch and helped the bride, blushing from the heat of the hot summer sun, into her homemade armour, which included metal thigh plates, metal collar, cape, belt, and plastic cuffs known as gauntlets which in movie lore, are capable of shooting darts.
The guests - in full regalia including helmets, boots and jet packs - formed two lines and created a light saber arch leading toward the altar.
"I don't have my fake gun!" somebody shouted. "That's okay," said another guest. "This is a wedding ceremony. I left mine in the car."
The crowd fell silent as Tenille, escorted by armor-clad PJ Reindel, a police officer from California who she met online, walked her down the aisle toward Thomas, who stood under an archway decorated with white faux roses.
The bride and groom held their helmets in their hands, a solemn sign of Mandalorian respect. As they grasped wrists, Tom Hutchens, a 30-year-old IT professional and erstwhile Mandalorian preacher, began the ceremony.
"Vodas," he said, using the Mandalorian word for "friends," "Outsiders, Jedis, everybody, welcome. This is a contract between two Mandalorians who made a journey and future together and bled together and will continue to bleed together until their last day," he said.
After reciting their vows in both Mandalorian and English translation, the jubilant crowd shouted: "Oya!" which in Mandalorian language means "celebration."
"I now pronounce you Mandalorian husband and wife," Hutchens said.
4) ice chapel Wedding
Weird weddings ... the ice chapel
A couple exchange their vows in a frozen chapel prepares to enter an ice chapel for their wedding at Alpha Resort Tomamu's ice village in Shimukappu town, Japan's northern island of Hokkaido February 6, 2008. 17 couples held their weddings at the chapel this year, according to the hotel.
5) married on a platform hanging
Weird weddings ... 40ft in the air
This couple claim to be the first in the world to take a bungee jump in the middle of their wedding ceremony.
Daredevils Sandra Eens and Jeroen Kippers were married on a platform 150 feet up, then leapt off it in full wedding regalia before kissing upside down at the bottom of the vertiginous drop.
To have and to hold on for dear life: Newlyweds Sandra Eens and Jeroen Kippers kiss at the end of their bungee jump
The ceremony takes place on a platform suspended 150 feet above the wedding marquee
The pair, both 25, were watched by 10 close friends and relatives in Brussels as they took their vows in front of a minister in a specially converted cradle.
Directly below them was the marquee where the party then enjoyed a wedding reception.
The Belgian couple paid over £7,000 for the privilege of being the first customers of new company Weddings In the Sky.
Company spokesman David Ghysels said couples could enjoy the experience at locations around the world including the Grand Canyon or Tower Bridge.
Leap of faith: The couple hurl themselves over the side
6) weightless wedding
Weird weddings ... the weightless one
A couple flew like Superman and floated upside down to say their wedding vows on Saturday, as Zero Gravity Corporation hosted the world's first-ever weightless wedding. Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan were married on June 20 among family and friends who were all on board ZERO-G's G-FORCE One, a specially modified Boeing 727. Officiating the wedding was Richard Garriott, the sixth private explorer in history to go to space, and the first second-generation U.S. astronaut. "I am honored to be taking part in Erin and Noah's wedding. I know firsthand the added thrill microgravity will play in their already joyous event," said Garriott. "The excitement from these first ever microgravity nuptials will not soon fade in the minds of all the members of the wedding party."
The plane flies in parabolas to provide 20-30 seconds of weightlessness at a time. Over the span of nearly eight minutes, the vows and rings were exchanged in a microgravity environment. The aircraft's interior has padded floors and walls and video cameras to record the the experience.
Virgin Galactic and Rocketplane Global have announced they plan on offering space weddings when their respective spaceplanes head to suborbital space, (Virgin Galactic hopes to begin their public flights to space in 2010) but for now, ZERO-G is the only way to experience true weightlessness without going to space.
Before starting a parabola, G-FORCE ONE flies level to the horizon at an altitude of 24,000 feet. The pilots then begins to pull up, gradually increasing the angle of the aircraft to about 45° to the horizon reaching an altitude of 34,000 feet. During this pull-up, passengers will feel the pull of 1.8 Gs. Next the plane is “pushed over” to create the zero gravity segment of the parabola. For the next 20-30 seconds everything in the plane is weightless. Next a gentle pull-out is started which allows the flyers to stabilize on the aircraft floor. This maneuver is repeated 12-15 times, each taking about ten miles of airspace to perform.
Fulmor and Finnegan are both space enthusiasts, and both wanted to be astronauts as children. Erin attended space camp in Michigan, while Noah volunteered at his local planetarium. Although they are currently living relatively earth-bound lives, the idea of space came up again following their engagement in 2008.
"When we started talking about marriage, Noah joked that we should have our wedding 'in space,'" Erin said. "Although most girls would take this to mean Noah didn't want to get married, I knew he was sincere, and that this was a serious request."
The wedding took place in the skies above Florida. ZERO-G has flights that depart from Bristow Air Center in Titusville, Florida, the Shuttle Landing Facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida and from the Signature Air Terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada.
7) Ekaterina Dmitriev life-size cut-out bridegroom
Weird weddings ... don't forget the card
THIS bride is no dummy ... but her groom is.
Ekaterina Dmitriev poses here with a life-size cut-out of her bridegroom, Yuri Malenchenko, following her satellite wedding to the orbiting space station Commander in August 2003.
The state of Texas allows weddings where one party is absent and the pair exchanged vows via satellite hook-up at NASA during weekly designated family teleconference time.
8) passionate pooches Weird weddings
Weird weddings ... passionate pooches
Minature poodles Rambo and Josie attend their wedding ceremony to mark Valentine's Day in Bangkok on February 10, 2003.
Many 'newlywed' animals including rabbits, roosters and hens attended the event.
9) frog wedding wedding Ceremony
Weird weddings ... Cold blooded couple
ceremony to present ornaments, dresses and vermilion to the bride ahead of a marriage, the event was marked by all the customs associated with a typical Assamese wedding. And it was witnessed by the residents of the Hengerabari locality here from Wednesday till Friday night. The nuptial knot was tied at 11 p.m. on Friday.
However, the bride, Bijuli, and the groom, Barun, were not human beings but two frogs. They were caught and brought here from the Tihu area of lower Assam’s Nalbari district to perform a symbolic marriage to invoke the rain-god as a dry spell over the past couple of months has hit the city and most parts of the State.
After the event, the couple were released into a nearby stream, along with two stand-by couples. A male toad brought with them, however, did not survive the ceremonies.
Barun was kept at the residence of his adopted parents — Deven Sarma and Anjali Devi. Joron was performed at the home of Chalodhar Kalita and Mala Kalita — the adopted parents of Bijuli. The wedding took place at a pandal erected on the premises of the Parbati Mahila Samiti.
“It’s a traditional belief that when a frog marriage is performed, the Barun Devata [the rain-god] is pleased and the rain comes. Since there has been no rain for the past couple of months we have performed the frog marriage to invoke the Barun Devata,” said Bijoy Das, a former councillor of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation.
In the absence of rain the city and several parts of Assam have been dry and dusty. The rainfall in Assam and Meghalaya for the season up to March 11 was only 2.2 mm against normal figure of 21.3 mm, according to data posted on the website of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Guwahati.
Residents in most localities of Guwahati have been facing an acute water shortage. The groundwater level has gone down. The paddy crop in most parts of the State has been affected.
10) monkey special wedding ceremony
Weird weddings ... monkey love
WITH THIS BANANNA: Seven-year-old male monkey Wukong and 6-year-old female monkey Xiaoya during their special wedding ceremony at a zoo in Wenling, China. The zoo organised the special wedding ceremony hoping to attract more visitors.
WE wonder if this nervous fella meets with his new mother-in-law's ape-roval.
11) Thailand's creepiest couple
Weird weddings ... the love bug
Thailand's creepiest couple - Centipede King Boonthawee Seangwong and Scorpion Queen Kanjana Kaetkeow - have tied the knot in a "Believe It Or Not" ceremony that included six other ghoulish couples.
Marking Valentine's Day in morbid style, seven couples decked out as corpses, took part in a traditional Thai wedding ceremony - complete with chanting Buddhist monks and the pouring of lustral water on the hands of the newlyweds - sponsored by Ripley's Believe It Or Not Haunted House attraction at Pattaya beach resort.
The star couple of the unusual nuptials were Kanjana, 36, who entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2002 for spending 32 days in a glass cube with 3,400 scorpions, and Boonthawee, 29, a 2003 Guinness record holder for spending 28 days with 1,000 centipedes.
"We met and fell in love at a snake farm in Samui Island where we were both performing," Kanjana said.
"We've done plenty of strange things before so a strange wedding sounded fun, and besides Ripley's is paying for it," she said.
All the romantic newlyweds will spend their first night of matrimonial bliss sleeping together in a coffin at Ripley's Haunted House.
"It's like being reborn again, and I hope it means we'll have a long life together," said Kanjana of her upcoming wedding night.
Royal Garden Entertainment, the owner-operator of the Royal Garden Hotel and Ripley's Believe It Or Not complex in Pattaya, has vowed to make the Valentine's necro-nuptials an annual affair.
"This year we have such lovely couples, I expect we will have more lovely couples and more variety next year," said Somporn Naksuetrong, general manager of Royal Garden Entertainment.
12) Riding wedding ceremony
Weird weddings ... the road to love
Kanjana Ketkaew, 35, (R) with scorpions on her gown, kisses her groom Bunthawee Sengwong, 29, with a centipede in his mouth, during their wedding ceremony on Valentine's Day in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, about 130 km (80 miles) southeast of Bangkok February 14, 2006. Kanjana holds a world record for staying in a plastic cage with 3,400 scorpions for 32 days. Her husband holds a world record for staying in a cage with 1,000 centipedes for 28 days.
