The Rerouted Skytress

I was so happy this summer when I discovered the Cowboy Channel. I watched countless rodeos as I quarantined. It was pure happiness for my Montana soul. Surprisingly, a few weeks ago, I switched from my Cowboy channel to the Hallmark Channel. I didn’t mean to do it. It just happened naturally. One night my rodeo was a repeat. So, I clicked down a few channels. Before I knew it, I was drawn into …..a pumpkin farmer meets a rich city girl trying to make a living…drama. I watched the whole movie. Then I watched the next one. Almost every night since I have watched a Hallmark movie. However, I watch them differently now. I always watch the first ten-minutes. Then I multitask…..either reading, writing or checking out Pinterest. I refocus about 15 minutes prior to the movie’s ending. There always is a disagreement or misunderstanding about that time. Three minutes to the end of the movie everything works out perfectly with either a kiss or a wedding. I’ve seen a lot of weddings! I’ve seen church weddings. Weddings in parks. Even a few weddings in a barn. Amazingly, I have yet to see a wedding in a Holiday Inn lobby. No, those aren’t the kinds of weddings for the Hallmark Channel. Those weddings are for flight crews on their layovers. Remarkably, I’ve witnessed two Holiday Inn lobby weddings so far. As I told my incredulous crew’s at each wedding we saw, …”You have to get married somewhere”.

I’m not sure if the Holiday Inn has a lobby wedding package. But, I find it ironic that both weddings happened at this hotel chain. The first hotel lobby wedding took place in Monroe, Louisiana, at the Holidome. I’ll admit, I never really took notice of the hotel lobby before the wedding. This hotel offered flight crews 50% off in the hotel restaurant. Every layover we couldn’t get our room keys fast enough. We”d get our keys and run to our rooms to change into layover clothes. When we said we would meet in the restaurant in 10 minutes, we meant it. Actually, we would be in our seats looking over the menu in less time than that. This hotel had the best fajitas we ever tasted. Okay, maybe they tasted better because they were 50% off. This particular layover my crew and I were happily eating our meal when our Skytress In-Charge looked into the hotel lobby from her seat in the restaurant. We thought she was delirious from the amazing fajita aroma when she said she thought a wedding was about to take place in the hotel lobby. Not surprisingly, we all stopped eating when she said this. Before we could put our fajitas back on our plates, she shockingly proclaimed the woman was marrying a child! I don’t care how great those fajitas were. When someone tells you a woman is marrying a child in the hotel lobby, you put your fajitas down and look. Before we could get out of our chairs, our Skytress In-Charge realized the woman’s son was walking her down the aisle. We still walked over to the restaurant windows and looked into the hotel lobby. Sure enough, a young man was walking his mom down the aisle, as a hotel guest was checking in less than 5 feet away. One of my Skytresses questioned who would get married in a hotel lobby. I mentioned to her that everyone looked extremely happy….the bride, the groom, the young man and the Minister. I then turned to my fellow Skytress and said, “You have to get married somewhere “. This silly response seemed to make sense to everyone. A few minutes later we went back to our table and ate our fajitas. Fajitas definitely taste better when they are 50% off. But, they taste magnificent when they are 50% off and a hotel lobby wedding is thrown in for free.

The other hotel lobby wedding took place at the Holiday Inn in Flynt, Michigan. Once again, my crew was getting together to eat shortly after we arrived. We do love to eat at my airline! Anyhow, I decided I would take the stairs to the lobby to meet my crew. As I exited my room and started walking towards the stairs, I walked by several bridesmaids in the hall. I surmised they were getting ready to go to a wedding. Well, they were. I just didn’t know they would be following me down the stairs 3 minutes later for the actual wedding. Luckily, I was sitting on the couch in the hotel lobby waiting for my crew before the bridesmaids came down the stairs. As I sat on the couch, the first officer exited the hotel elevator. I know he didn’t expect to see people in the hotel lobby. It was empty minutes before when we checked in. He had a shocked look on his face when he saw all the nicely dressed people sitting in chairs. By this time, the groom and Minister were standing in front of the guests. The first officer walked past the man checking in at the front desk. He sat next to me on the couch. Before he could say anything, the music started. We watched the bridesmaids and bride come down the stairs. The Minister started to speak. As we sat on the couch in our layover clothes, the first officer turned to me and whispered, “Do you feel weird?” I whispered back, “Yes”. Before anymore of our crew members came down, the wedding was over. Our Skyter In-Charge came out of the elevator as everyone was applauding the married couple. He gave us a bewildered look as he walked towards us. Before he could say anything, the first officer informed the Skyter he had just missed the wedding. The Skyter surveyed the wedding party. He turned and observed the gentleman checking into the hotel. He then spun back to us and asked, “Who gets married in a hotel lobby?” I smiled at him and said, “You have to get married somewhere.”

I believe the phrase, “You have to get married somewhere”, started when my family and friends were in Ponce Inlet, Florida. Yes, we were on our annual vacation in Ponce Inlet. We decided one day to have lunch outside at a restaurant near the Ponce Inlet lighthouse. While the waitress was making her way around all our tables to get everyone’s orders, my friend noticed a couple a few tables down. She mentioned to those of us sitting next to her she thought the couple was about to get married. Sure enough they were. A short time later, as we sat eating our grouper sandwiches, the couple made their way to the end of the restaurant’s boardwalk. With the beautiful Atlantic Ocean behind them, they said their “I, do’s”. The wedding party consisted of the bride, the groom, the Minister and a friend or family member taking pictures of the ceremony. We all agreed that when the pictures were developed they would be beautiful. All anyone would ever see was the couple and the picturesque ocean behind them. No one would ever know, that a few feet away, a group of twenty-plus vacationers were eating their meals watching the couple get married. We wondered if the location the couple chose to get married was meaningful to them prior to their wedding. Some one in our group said, “You have to get married somewhere. It might as well be here with the ocean behind them”. I’ve used this saying many times since. I usually follow it up by saying, “It doesn’t matter where you get married….just as long as you are happy.” I truly mean this.

Many couples are deciding the, “You have to get married somewhere”, means a destination wedding. Throughout my career I’ve had many brides-to -be ask me if I could put their wedding dress in our coat closet. They always implore us to be careful not to wrinkle their dress. Some flights I have multiple dresses in my closet. Especially when I fly into Cancun or the Bahamas. I always try my best not to wrinkle the dresses. But, anyone who has seen our airplane’s coat closets, knows this is easier said than done. When brides fly home after their wedding, they have a completely different attitude. They happily tell us we can squish their wedding dress in the closet if we have, too. Now, squishing I can do! One time a bride deplaned without taking her wedding dress. We joked she changed her mind on our flight about getting married. One Skytress on my crew recalled how earlier in the flight I said “You have to get married somewhere”. She laughed and said the bride that left her dress, “didn’t want to get married ANYWHERE!”

Skytresses also have “to get proposed to somewhere”. A Skytress friend of mine got engaged on her layover. Her boyfriend went to our layover hotel and told the people at the front desk what he planned to do. They wholeheartedly helped him with his plan. When my friend arrived at the hotel, the people at the front desk told her they had a special room for her. As she headed to the elevator, they called her boyfriend in her hotel room. When the Skytress got to her door there was a diamond ring hanging from the door handle. She questioned her crew. Her boyfriend then opened the door and surprised her. He told her she not only had the key to her hotel room, she also had the key to his heart. He then got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

Another Skytress proposal happen in the jetway in Dallas. This one I actually saw. We had an extra Dallas Skytress working our flight to Dallas. She was finishing her trip there. The deplaning process was very chaotic that day. We had several people needing wheelchair assistance and several children traveling alone that we had to walk off the airplane. Our pilots that flew us to Dallas were in the jetway briefing with our new pilots. While all this was going on, I noticed a young gentleman standing in the jetway with flowers. This was pre 9-11 when security wasn’t as strict. I asked the gentleman if he was waiting for someone. He said he was waiting for our Dallas Skytress. I went into the airplane and told the Skytress a gentleman was waiting in the jetway for her. She immediately walked out with me. She saw the bouquet of flowers. She sheepishly told me it was her boyfriend and then walked over to see him. The boyfriend gently took the Skytress to the side of the jetway and started to propose to her. I was flabbergasted and overjoyed at what I was seeing. The pilots were unaware of what was taking place merely feet away from them. They were still happily chattering away. I quickly went up to them and told them they were missing the proposal taking place next to them. They all stopped talking. The poor Skytress got embarrassed. She turned to us and explained she and her boyfriend had been living together for years. They had plans to get married. So, it wasn’t really a proposal. We begged to differ. Her boyfriend had flowers and a beautiful ring. We smiled and told her this was an actual proposal. We clapped and congratulated the couple. She got more embarrassed. She ran back into the plane and got her bags. Her fiancé waited awkwardly for her to return. They eventually walked up the jetway together. She was holding her flowers. He held her hand and pulled her suitcase up the jetway for her. I’m sure now when they tell the story of their proposal their memories are a wee bit sweeter and quite possibly more funny, as they recall the chaos in the jetway. I like to believe they are still married. I’m quite sure they had a beautiful wedding. I can only wonder where they got married. But, as you know by now,…”You have to get married somewhere”.