Printed from the Review
Couple’s wedding a case of sky high nuptials
Falls minister suggested exotic ceremony to groom
Posted By JENNIFER PELLEGINI
Harsh Kumar and Martha Chin got married life off the ground Monday in a really big way.
Over the roar of helicopter blades and a revving engine, the Toronto couple got married inside one of Niagara Helicopters’ fleet of choppers before soaring 2,500 feet over the falls.
Although their microphones occasionally cut out as Rev. Malcolm MacQuarrie led them in their marriage vows, Chin, a chef, and Kumar, who runs a produce and hospitality solutions company, didn’t care.
As they pledged a lifetime of happiness together as husband and wife and sealed the deal with a kiss, the helicopter lifted off the ground and took them for a romantic ride over Niagara Falls.
The couple met at work four years ago and had been talking about a wedding for the past year.
Kumar became anxious to make it official, so he called MacQuarrie last week to enquire about a surprise wedding for his beloved.
“I was just planning a wedding in the chapel,” said Kumar. “But then the reverend suggested something exciting and new and I liked this idea.”
He told Chin he was whisking her to Niagara Falls to get married Monday, but didn’t tell her until the last minute exactly where it would be.
“I thought I was just coming to Niagara Falls,” she said. “Then he said, ‘Oh, no, we’re getting married on a helicopter. That was a real shocker last night.”
Only best man Jaya Baskeran was in on the surprise. Maid of Honour Ayana Niles was in the dark until they were on their way.
“It’s exciting,” she said.
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MacQuarrie said while he has done many unusual weddings - from beachfront ceremonies at Sherkston to a western-themed “hitching” in a barn - helicopter weddings are relatively rare.
“Most of the ones I do are on the Maid of the Mist,” he said.
With the ceremony completed, all that was left was a chance for the couple to have a first dance - a waltz in the sky to the “Anniversary Waltz,” which played on the helicopter’s sound system after the “Wedding March.”
As pilot Milos Kapetanovic swayed the chopper back and forth, the wedding party looked out on the Falls.
“If it had been a sunny day, you would have had eight, nine rainbows,” he said.
Back on the ground as they selected their souvenir photo, the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. said it’s definitely a different wedding than their friends or family expected.
But, they said, the wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It was wonderful,” Chin said.
jpellegrini@nfreview.com
Article ID# 784234
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