Move over the traditional practice of arriving at the wedding venue on a horse or a chauffeur-driven car or a simple meravanige (procession). Now, if you have the means, you can fly to the wedding destination in a helicopter or exchange vows while in flight.
Bengaluru-based Thumby Aviation, which was once operating heli-taxi shuttle service between the Kempegowda International Airport and Electronics City, is now offering “heli-wedding” services.
Under this, families of the bride and groom can hire a six-seater chopper and fly to the wedding venue, do photoshoots, and even take their guests on joy rides.
“Since we introduced the service a few months ago, we have done four sorties. Two of these were in Bengaluru where the helicopter was hired to ferry the families to the wedding venue, the third was for a wedding in Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and in another one the bride and groom exchanged rings mid-air in the presence of their parents,” said Govind Nair, Head, Business Development, Thumby Aviation.
A temporary helipad is set up near the wedding venue for the safe take off and landing of the helicopter. Mr. Nair said that if the wedding venue is in Bengaluru, the charge is between ₹2.5 lakh and ₹3 lakh, if it is outstation, then the fares depend on the distance. “Cost depends on what they require, some want to do pre-wedding photoshoots and joy rides to be given to their family members,” Mr. Nair said.
Thumby Aviation wants to offer the service outside Bengaluru in the future. “We want to combine our service with destination weddings wherein we want to fly our clients to destinations like Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Ooty, and so on,” he said.
Heli-weddings are said to have originated in New Zealand where concepts like “elopement wedding” are also popular, where bride and groom exchange vows without anybody else’s presence or with just the or with a very small gathering.
