Scandinavian airline SAS said Wednesday it plans to host the first-ever in-flight gay wedding in December, and is searching for a suitable couple to walk down the airplane aisle.

“It will be a very traditional wedding,” SAS spokesman Anders Lindstroem told AFP. “There will be wedding cake and dancing in the aisles.”

first mile-high gay wedding

SAS is accepting entries from gay couples who wanted to celebrate their nuptials mid-flight from Stockholm to New York on December 6, with the winning entry will be chosen by an online vote.

The airline said it would pay for the winners’ tickets, hotels and honeymoon in Los Angeles, and cater the on-board banquet, albeit with a special wedding menu instead of normal passenger fare.

Linstroem said SAS was playing catch-up to US airlines, who have spent years courting gay, lesbian and bisexuals in the United States with targeted marketing and sponsorship campaigns.

The ceremony itself would need to take place in Swedish airspace, where gay marriage is legal, he added.

The wedding couple and their guests would have the entire business class section closed off, in part to avoid offending any other customers who might not approve of the mile-high matrimony.

“We don’t want to offend anyone. We hope we won’t offend anyone. It is the year 2010 after all,” Lindstroem said.

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Sanjay Shah, originally from Leicester, married an Indian man who did not want to be named in a ceremony in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital earlier this month.

Though Nepal does not yet recognise same-sex marriage, ceremonies performed by priests are generally accepted.

The wedding was organised by LGBT group the Blue Diamond society, and happened just a few days before Nepal’s first gay pride march, which was attended by an estimated 2000 people.

Nepal gay wedding venue

According to the website Pink News, the pair met in the UK, and plan to return to Britain after a honeymoon in India.

Nepal’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of gay rights in 2008, but has yet to enact an appropriate law. The government is also expected to legalise same-sex marriage when gay rights are eventually incorporated into the constitution.

The drive to end discrimination is supported by government officals who think gay tourists could bring money to the economy.

Nepal’s best-known gay activist, MP Sunil Pant, has even established a tour company, Pink Mountain, which caters to gay tourists looking to marry or honeymoon in the Himalayas.

“Most Asian countries don’t welcome gay visitors, so we can have the maximum benefit for the Nepal economy which is fragile after years of war,” he said.

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