Four weird weddings, one brief marriage, and one deadly proposal. All in the name of love.
FOREVER MINE
In December 2006, 10 couples, all dressed in traditional Chinese wedding attire, descended 1,000 feet underground to get married in the dust-ridden pitshaft of a coal mine in Shanxi Province, China. The Datong Coal Group held the mass ceremony to show the public that the country’s coal mines weren’t as dismal and dangerous as recent news stories had made them out to be (at the time, a miner fatality occurred nearly every day in China).
On Thanksgiving night in 2009, hundreds of bargain-hunters were lined up in the rain outside of a Best Buy store in Allen Park, Michigan, waiting for the doors to open the next morning for “Black Friday,” the biggest sale of the year. Among the tents and other makeshift shelters was a white RV. Under its awning, Edward Burbo (wearing dress pants and a black tuxedo T-Shirt) married Jennifer Dykstra (wearing a white sweater and skirt with brown snow boots). The couple had decided to get married there because camping out for the sale was an annual tradition for them. “Everyone said, ‘You’re getting married at Best Buy? In line? For real?’” said Burbo. The newlyweds found some great deals the next morning.
In December 2006, hundreds of well-wishers traveled to the remote Indian city of Malda to celebrate the marriage of two banyan trees, the trunks of which had grown wrapped around each other in a “loving embrace.” The “wedding” took place after a rash of deaths and burglaries in the region; people hoped that if the two trees were married, they might ward off evil spirits. “The trees can save us,” said one attendee. The bride and groom were decked out in garlands and cloth.
Sesame Street’s Bert & Ernie have been questioned about their sexual preference in interviews.
In August 2009, a bride named Lin Rong, from China’s Jilin Province, walked down the aisle…in a wedding dress whose train was 1.4 miles long. The lengthy train, which took three hours to unroll in a large city park, was the idea of the groom, Zhao Peng, who’d heard about a similar bridal train in Romania that was nine-tenths of a mile long. Zhao was determined to set a new world record. “I do not want a cliché wedding,” he said, so he spent 40,000 yuan ($5,800) on the train. And although Zhao’s bride was delighted with his gesture, his family wasn’t. “It is a waste of money,” said his mom.
One night in 2009 on a moonlit beach in Hilton Head, South Carolina, a young man proposed to his girlfriend by placing 150 candles inside waxed bags that were arranged in the shape of a heart. She said yes, they kissed, and then they walked arm-in-arm to their rental home…and left the candles burning. Meanwhile, 60 newly hatched loggerhead sea turtles had just emerged from their nest on the beach. Driven by instinct, they began their scramble down to the moonlit ocean. But the candles were brighter than the water, so the hatchlings were drawn to them instead. Those that didn’t die of exhaustion were eaten by crabs. The next day, authorities tracked down the lovebirds and informed them that during the threatened turtles’ hatching season, it’s illegal to use any artificial light on or near the beach after 10:00 p.m. The couple didn’t know, and were reportedly “remorseful.” No charges were filed.
In 2009 Kristin Georgi, 22, married 84-year-old Joe Hardy, a wealthy—and very busy—owner of a successful lumber company. Their marriage lasted only a few months. Why? “He was very hard for me to keep up with,” complained Georgi. “When you climb onto your own jet for the tenth time in four days…ugh! And we were only in each place for a day and a half. It was a bit too fast-paced for me.” Hardy eventually filed for divorce and is now looking for a new bride who can keep up with his busy lifestyle.
Can you type? You’re 5 times more likely to write a NY Times bestseller than date a supermodel.