ROOSEVELT ISLAND — Do you? Do you? I do. Kiss the bride.
Jennifer and Wes Hansen "threw tradition out the window" when they held a three-and-a-half minute wedding ceremony on the Roosevelt Island Tram last week.
The couple, who live in Chelsea, decided to get hitched over the East River rather than at City Hall because they wanted to do something "funky" and memorable, they said.
"We’re not world travelers ... but we decided it would be nice to do something that nobody else has done. Being up in the air over the river was something unique and special," Wes Hansen, 50, said. "We were kinda shooting from the hip, always bearing in mind the event might not have fallen the way we intended."
On the afternoon of Dec. 22, Wes and Jennifer took a cab to the Roosevelt Island Tram at 59th Street, where they met their family, 10 of their friends, including their officiant, Reverend Matt Levy, and got on the tram.
Then, surrounded by roughly 30 strangers, the couple exchanged their vows and "I dos" within three and a half minutes. The ride only lasted four minutes, Jennifer Hansen, 46, said.
"We were trying to keep it a secret, but of course, I'm in my wedding dress," she said. "People on the tram were super excited. One woman said it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in the city. It was surreal."
The Hansens met 23 years ago at the Big Apple Circus, where Wes Hansen worked as a horse groomer and electrician, they said.
The two would meet on and off again through the years but it wasn't until 2008 that they connected on Facebook and decided to be together.
"We were throwing tradition out the window from day one," Wes Hansen said. "It was really exhilarating and magical. I can’t stop saying how happy I am."
