Wellington – A pirate bride, pasta rings, colander crowns and a ceremony on a ship will all be part of the world’s first official Pastafarian wedding to be held in New Zealand on Saturday.
Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young were to wed in the South Island town of Akaroa on the vintage sailing ship Fox II, usually used for dolphin-watching tours.
The couple will be wed by the Karen Martyn, a “ministeroni” of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose adherents style themselves Pastafarians.
The spoof church began as part of a protest against plans to teach the Christian theory of intelligent design in schools in the United States, alongside evolution theory.
“We found the church and we got quite inspired. I wouldn’t have got married any other way. A conventional marriage just didn’t appeal,” Young told Radio New Zealand on Friday.
Ricketts said the day would begin with a sail on the high seas with family and close friends.
“The ceremony will commence in full pirate regalia with a custom script and lots of interesting traditions that we have cooked up specially for the occasion.”
Young told Radio New Zealand that the couple would not exchange vows at the ceremony, and would instead read out their “terms of engagement” in pirate voices.
The oath would consist essentially of the recognition “that we are on a voyage together and whatever storms or doldrums we come through we can get through it to the best of our ability together if we both keep our hand on the wheel,” Ricketts explained.
He said guests at the wedding would come in pirate garb, or wear colanders on their heads.
“We have seen some amazing costumes. It is really going to be quite spectacular.”
Young described her wedding dress as “quite fancy,” if a bit rough round the edges. “It is fun. You don’t have to look perfect in it.”
New Zealand granted permission to the unorthodox church to perform marriages last year.
At the time, the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery, told dpa it was not his role to judge the church’s philosophical or religious beliefs.
“That is one of the things that we celebrate in New Zealand is the great diversity of people who live here and the openness we have to different viewpoints.” (dpa/NAN)