USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Fell into place’: Couple gets married on flight to Phoenix
An Oklahoma City couple tied the knot at 37,000 feet while flying over Arizona.
Jeremy Salda and Pam Patterson ( now Salda) had booked a chapel in Las Vegas to exchange their wedding vows on April 24 when their connecting flight on American Airlines out of Dallas was canceled after several delays due to weather.
Standing near their gate at DallasFort Worth International Airport in full wedding attire, the couple’s stress was beginning to show.
Enter Chris, an ordained minister who happened to be booked on that same flight.
He’d overheard their story and as Jeremy recalls, he said, “Look, I’m ordained. I can help you guys out.”
As luck would have it, they managed to find three seats on Southwest Airlines Flight 2690, connecting in Phoenix and scheduled to take off in 50 minutes from Dallas Love Field Airport on the other side of town.
“We get in an Uber, and we tell him like, ‘ Look, we’ve got to get to Love Field. Floor it,’” Pam recalls.
Southwest flight attendant Julie Reynolds recalls the airline’s operations agent saying, “There’s a lady out there in a full- on wedding dress.”
The bride got on the plane and introduced herself to Reynolds as Pam Tastic.
They ran it past the captain, and to Pam’s surprise, the captain said, “Let’s do it!”
Reynolds downloaded “Here Comes the Bride” before the plane took off and volunteered to be maid of honor.
“They said their vows, and it was really cute,” Reynolds says. “She said all these kind of little airplane things. Like ‘ I’ll be your co- pilot.’”
A professional photographer who happened to be on the flight took wedding photos.
They did their first dance, in- flight, to the Bruno Mars song, “Marry Me.”
And it all worked out.
“All these little things just kind of fell into place,” Pam says.