First Weightless Wedding Planned

The first weightless wedding is set to take place this month.

New Yorkers Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan plan to say "I do" June 20 while floating in microgravity on an airplane nicknamed "The Vomit Comet."

The couple, lifelong space fans who both dreamed of becoming astronauts, will exchange rings and vows in front of their closest family and friends aboard a modified Boeing 727-200 plane owned by the Zero Gravity Corp. The plane will depart from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and make steep dives while airborne to give the passengers eight full minutes of weightlessness, just as astronauts experience while flying in space.

"Noah kept saying he wanted to get married in space," Finnegan wrote on the couple's blog, ZeroGravityWedding.com. "We probably won?t be able to afford to go to space for at least another 25 to 50 years (maybe for our anniversary?) so when the Zero G plane opened to the public, I suggested we get married on one of their flights as a compromise."

Space tourist Richard Garriott, who flew to the International Space Station last year through a deal brokered by the company Space Adventures, will officiate the ceremony.

The bride will wear a dress specially designed for microgravity (underneath the skirt are pants) by Japanese designer Eri Matsui. The groom plans to don a custom made tuxedo by J. Lucas Clothiers with tails crafted specifically to take advantage of zero gravity conditions.

The bride and groom will even exchange special rings designed by jeweler Chris Ploof made with pieces of metal from the Gibeon meteorite, a space rock made of an iron-nickel alloy that fell in prehistoric times in Namibia.

The couple paid $5,400 per person for themselves and 10 guests to take the ride, though some guests are paying part of their own tickets.

"Noah and I are throwing a lot of money at our crazy wedding because private space travel is a cause we really believe in," Finnegan wrote. "We really think the future is space, and that private citizens ought to be able to travel there. We want to promote space travel as a positive thing."

In 2003 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko got married in space while he was flying aboard the International Space Station. The ceremony was conducted via video, because the bride was back on Earth at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Fulmor and Finnegan are set to become the first two people to be married in a weightless environment.

After the short ceremony, the newlyweds will land and meet guests waiting on the ground, including the bride's mother, who declined to experience microgravity. Fulmor and Finnegan are hoping to recruit one more guest who can pay for at least half of his or her own ticket. Interested parties can contact them at noahanderin@gmail.com.

The couple is holding a launch party and press conference, which is open to the public, Tuesday at 7:00 pm at the Kush Lounge in New York City.

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