Couples marry in inflatable church in Valentine’s Day opening event
No bride wants a blow-up on her wedding day, but 16 couples got married in an inflatable church to celebrate the start of Adelaide’s festival season.
SA News
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The church bells would be ringing if they weren’t made of rubber at Light Square on Valentine’s Day morning as couples gathered to renew their vows or make marriage commitments.
Family and friends of 16 couples gathered at The Inflatable Church, a debut Fringe show, to witness their loved ones declare their love live on ABC Radio Adelaide.
The Inflatable Church is an immersive show with the goal to marry 12 couples a day throughout their Fringe season.
Reverend Duncan Pritchard together with his partner Tamara Jones co-created the concept church which has been running for 20 years around the world.
Rev Pritchard told The Advertiser he was marrying people in a boxing ring at Glastonbury festival when his business partner called him saying he’d found the rubber church two decades ago.
“It has been owned by a gangster,” he said.
A UK gangster had bought the church from an inflatable engineer called Andy who created it after a one pound bet.
“The guy who bought it (the gangster) started to do real weddings,” Rev Pritchard said.
“Until his wife found out that he was having an affair and then when she found out she went in and gave it a stab.
“When we took it over there was all these perfect little circles all the way around.”
The Inflatable Church team used the church, which has been stabbed 50 times by the gangster’s wife, for 10 years until they needed to replace it for good.
Now couples, including Guy and Dianna Harrison, both 57, are able to renew their 28-year-long marriage in their same wedding outfits – a suit of armour and a medieval gown.
“We loved the movie Excalibur at the time,” Ms Harrison said.
Kate McPhee, 61, and Andy Griffths, 70, who met 16 years ago through a mutual friend, also came to celebrate their love.
Having had seven marriages between them, the pair said this will be “the last one”.
Loved-up duos came from across Adelaide to take part in the festivities including Fi and Mark Abraham who were set up on a blind date 31 years ago and Lynda and Michael Moore who found each other at work.
Held in Adelaide’s West End, the UK-based team, who call themselves The Love Army, create a real wedding narrative where no two weddings are the same.
If you’d like to get married in the church you can for $100 or if you’d like to witness the immerse show, tickets are $10.
They are open Friday to Sunday from 3pm to 9pm and have 12, 30-minute weddings a day.
The show is in collaboration with the city council with Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith expressing her commitment to enlivening the west end.
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