On Oct. 19, 1874, Mary Elizabeth Walsh and Charles M. Colton said their vows in the ‘P.T. Barnum’ balloon in the air over Cincinnati, Ohio

NEED TO KNOW

• The first known aerial wedding took place 152 years ago
• Mary Elizabeth Walsh and Charles M. Colton exchanged vows in a hot air balloon over Cincinnati, Ohio, on Oct. 19, 1874
• Renowned showman P.T. Barnum, the couple’s employer, attended the ceremony, along with a crowd of about 50,000 spectators

More than 150 years ago, love was in the air for one American couple who married in the first known aerial wedding.

Mary Elizabeth Walsh and Charles M. Colton exchanged vows in a balloon over the Cincinnati Hippodrome in Ohio on Oct. 19, 1874, according to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The balloon — named the P.T. Barnum after the famous showman, who was Walsh and Colton’s employer — was piloted by aeronaut W.H. Donaldson in his 98th ascension.

Details of the high-flying wedding were shared in the 1875 book History of Donaldson’s Balloon Ascensions: Laughable Incidents, Frightful Accidents, Narrow Escapes, Thrilling Adventures, Bursted Balloons, Trapeze Performances, Mock Suns, Parasalenaes, Mirages, Paper Balloon Ascension, Passengers and Passengers’ Description of Cloud Land, Etc.

According to author M.L. Amick’s account, Barnum and his new wife, Nancy Fish, attended the wedding, along with about 50,000 spectators who gathered on the ground to witness the spectacle.

The bride and groom were joined in the balloon’s basket by Donaldson, attendants Anna Rosetta Yates and W.C. Comp, and the Rev. Howard B. Jefferies. They also made room for one other passenger, press agent David Thomas, who had tirelessly promoted the event and was documenting the moment.

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Once Walsh and Colton recited their vows and were officially declared husband and wife, their attendants sent a parachute announcing the news to the people on the ground. The balloon then continued its flight over Cincinnati before landing at a church for a second wedding ceremony, followed by a reception.

While Walsh and Colton made history with their nuptials in 1874, another couple, Mary West Jenkins and professor John F. Boyton, almost took the honors years earlier. They had planned to marry on Nov. 8, 1865, in inventor and aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe’s balloon over New York City, per the National Air and Space Museum. However, their minister, Reverend H.W. Beecher, refused to perform the ceremony in the air.

Instead, the couple said their vows at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and then took flight over Central Park, signing their marriage license in the air.

Another notable aerial wedding, which took place in 1888 over the Rhode Island State Fair in Providence, ended with an unwelcome splash. After Margaret Buckley and Edward T. Davis said “I do” in the mammoth Commonwealth, operated by aeronauts James Allen and his son James K. Allen, the balloon landed in a swamp near Easton, Mass., at dusk, according to Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, per the National Air and Space Museum.

The wedding party was “obliged to cling to the ropes above the basket to keep out of the water,” the newspaper reported at the time. They were eventually rescued, and the balloon was tied to a tree. Buckley and Davis completed their wedding trip by train.

Balloon weddings continued to grow in popularity after the turn of the century, and they remain popular with adventurous couples today.

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