MARRIED IN THE AIR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21554, 17 January 1940, Page 10

MARRIED IN THE AIR

three mac hines aloft over MELBOURNE CEREMONY HELD IN CABIN While thousands of Saturday night theatregoers were hurrying along the city streets, a wedding was being celebrated 1500 ft. above them in the cabin of the air liner Ansalanta. In addition to the bride, Miss Eunice May Stewart, and the bridegroom, Mr Rowland Carter, 20 other persons went aloft, 10 in the wedding aeroplane, eight in a second machine and four in a third. The officiating clergyman, the Rev. H. C. Trebilco, who is a retired Methodist minister, was making his first flight. A large crowd saw the three aeroplanes take off from the Essendon airport. The bride and her seven bridesmaids made a charming picture as they posed for photographs in front of the air liner. The bridal party then boarded their machine, in which a special seat had been fitted for the clergyman. Soon after the three aeroplanes were in the air, they joined up in formation and flew over the city. A few minutes later the wedding ceremony began, with the roar of the Ansalanta’s engines audible only as a dull accompaniment in the soundproof cabin. In 20 minutes the ceremony had been completed and the register was signed as the aeroplanes, after crossing Hobson’s Bay, were passing over Werribee, the future home of the bride and bridegroom. Then they headed back for the airport and landed after being half an hour in the air. A battery of newsreel and other cameras greeted the members of the bridal party as they stepped from the machine as undisturbed as if the wedding had been celebrated in the quietness of a church. “We are living in a free age,” said Mr Trebilco. “People have their preferences. The time will come, if it has not arrived already, when the Church will have to cater for the wishes of the people. The ceremony was conducted reverently and there was nothing to which anyone could take exception. Every word could be heard distinctly.” The record will show that the wedding took place “at Melbourne.”