PHOTO – REUTERS

STOCKHOLM – Five couples will celebrate Valentine‘s Day by marrying in mid-air on a flight from Baltimore to Iceland, Icelandair said on Thursday. The couples, all from the United States, are taking advantage of an Icelandair promotion that includes a two-night honeymoon in a top hotel. One couple is from New York state, one from Georgia, two from Michigan and one from Maryland. The airline declined to disclose their names. The couples will arrive at Baltimore/Washington International airport three hours before departure to buy their tickets at $299 per couple on presentation of a marriage licence, so legally they will be married before boarding. There will be a reception at the airport with champagne and heart-shaped wedding cakes and music playing, to which they can invite friends and family, an Icelandair spokesman said. The couples, wearing wedding dresses and tuxedos, will board last to the strains of the Wedding March from Wagner‘s Lohengrin („Here Comes the Bride“), as flight attendants announce the departure of the „Honeymoon Express“. Flight FI 642 then departs at 8.15 p.m. (0115 GMT February 15). Two hours into the flight, the Honorable Robert P. Duckworth, Clerk of the Court for Anne Arundel County, will perform a civil wedding. „There will be a ceremony, with the exchange of vows, rings, the kiss — that will all take place in mid-air,“ the spokesman said.

Reuters