An Oklahoma couple who wanted to exchange vows in Las Vegas instead got married on the plane after their flight was dropped. Last week, Jeremy Salda and Pam Patterson immediately set up plans for a Las Vegas wedding set for Sunday, April 24.
The couple made sure to double check everything as they reserved an appointment for a marriage permit, booked a hotel near the strip and purchased tickets for a flight from Oklahoma City to Nevada. Patterson even purchased a $200 wedding dress on the web.
However, their arrangements before long hit turbulence – only two days after the flight was canceled, leading them to rebook with an alternate airline, this time for a flight with a connection out of Texas.
At that point when they finally made it to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Salda and Patterson could only look on as their final flight to Vegas was postponed multiple times prior to being outright dropped.
The couple, who started dating in August 2020, had worn their wedding clothing to the airport since they wouldn’t have a lot of time once they came to Las Vegas. After hearing their story, an ordained minister going to Las Vegas proposed to wed them if they couldn’t make their wedding appointment.
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Patterson, Salda and the pastor found a Southwest Airlines trip to Vegas out of Love Field Airport (what a fitting name) and immediately called an Uber to get them there on time.
“It’s like a scene from a movie,” Patterson, 52, tells PEOPLE in a video. “I’m literally running through the airport, through security, in a wedding dress. …People are shouting at us, ‘Congratulations! Yay!'”
When they boarded, the pilot asked the couple if they planned to get hitched in Las Vegas, to which Patterson answered: “We’re going to try, but if not, I’m just going to get married on this plane.”
Turns out, the flight team liked the thought and they started decorating the cabin with bathroom tissue as streamers. They even downloaded “Here comes the bride” and brought out bottles of champagne.
When they arrived at a cruising height, the lights were dimmed, and the pastor they just met hours ago officiated Patterson and Salda’s wedding before many.
“I said, ‘If there’s ever any turbulence I want to weather it with you,'” Patterson recalls.
https://youtu.be/X85nuhJ7Kj8
The couple started dating two years ago after Patterson told Salda that she jumps at the opportunity to “throw kindness around like confetti.” So for their second date, Salda brought a bag of confetti and flowers that the two tossed around town.
“It was just one of those great dates,” Patterson, who has a 28 year old daughter and 20 year old son, remembers, “where you talk all night until 2 a.m.”
While they had a lot of chemistry, the pair wasn’t ready to settle down. Instead, they chose to keep in contact while dating others.
“I didn’t know if I was ready to do a whole, family thing again,” Patterson says.
Salda made things official when he proposed to Patterson on an oceanside in Cancun in January.
“I’ve been speechless twice in my life: The time I met Tim McGraw, and that day,” Patterson remembers.
That’s the point when their idea for a Vegas wedding began. They arranged a Cabo wedding in August, but needed to first have a legal one in the U.S., and Vegas seemed like the ideal spot to get it done.
Instead, their wedding at 37,000 feet over Arizona has gone viral around the web, with countless people across the world watching the tender minutes that unfurled on the plane.
Among the cherished memories: the couple’s first dance through the plane aisles was to Bruno Mars’ “Marry You.”
“I said I wanted to be his co-pilot for life,” Patterson recalls.
One passenger even gifted them a mini donut in place of a wedding cake. And a notebook was passed around the airplane as a guest book.
“Someone on the plane told us, ‘I feel like I just watched a rom-com,'” Patterson said.