Couple Gets Married Underwater

Last week, a couple decided to try something different for their wedding, by heading 20 feet underwater to say their vows.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on August 05 2008

Brian Wilson and Christine Gunn didn’t want a run-of-the-mill wedding ceremony. A traditional church wedding wasn’t what they wanted, and a drive-thru Vegas elopement didn’t feel quite right, either. So last week, the Oregon couple decided to do something different to celebrate their nuptials - and dove into marriage.

The couple, wearing wetsuits and oxygen tanks, headed 20 feet below the surface of the Illinois River with Pastor Jim Bard, who’s also a diving enthusiast. Since it’s not so easy to talk down there, the couple wrote their vows on a white slate, and displayed them to the pastor at the proper time.

“He asked us if we did, we held up our cards that say, ‘I do,’ he pronounced us man and wife, then we took off our regulators and we kissed,” Gunn told the Today Show. “I cried.”

The underwater location has sentimental value to the newlyweds - it was the first place they ever went diving together. Wilson has been a diving fan for a long time, but Gunn had never tried the sport before. Now, the pair are counting on plenty of underwater adventures to share in their future - though they still need to come up for air sometimes: After their watery “I-dos,” the duo repeated their vows on land for relatives who preferred to stay dry.

“It’s really different, I’ll tell you,” said Gunn’s grandmother, Genevieve Eppele, who witnessed the underwater ceremony from some nearby rocks. “I told her, ‘Can’t you get married like normal people?’”

Filed under: General Interest, Weird,

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