Winging it
Kimberly Connor stood in an empty hangar at the Calhoun County Airport wondering whether or not to wear a shawl. Sharing the last few minutes in the hangar with the bride to be, was Kim’s 16 year-old son, Cody, and her mother, Charlotte Bledsoe.
As Kim and Cody discussed the side on which he would stand as he escorted her down the aisle, Kim said, “We’re going to wing it.”
“We’re good at winging it,” Cody grinned.
Deciding to wear the shawl, Kim nervously awaited her cue.
“You’re beautiful,” Charlotte said, giving her daughter a warm hug.
Just a few hours before, Kim, age 38, and her fiancé Rex Byrns, age 43, arrived at Saturday’s Big Whoop fly-in with sparkling eyes and joyous hearts.
“I forgot to bring the vows I wrote,” Kim shared.
“That’s okay. When I look into your eyes, I will see the vows of your heart,” Rex said as he hugged the woman that would soon be his wife.
Kim, of Canton, shared a bit about the early courtship days that were spent communicating through email and phone calls due to distance.
“Rex was overseas, and we were forced to talk,” she said. “I am marrying my best friend.”
Instead of a traditional wedding march, the bride walked to another hangar to the sound of planes taking off and landing. There in the hangar, family and friends surrounded Kim and Rex as they shared words from the heart.
Rex said his vows as he slipped his grandmother’s wedding set onto Kim’s finger. It was the first Kim would see the family heirloom set in white gold.
With a shaky voice and tears in her eyes, Kim promised to “honor and love and respect you as head of the household. I’ll be your best friend, your confidant and never take for granted the love we have. Winging it Kimberly and Rex Byrns
The groom’s father, Richard Byrns, performed the ceremony. After the couple was pronounced husband and wife, Rex kissed his bride and then turned to those in attendance.
“I wanted to tell her in front of witnesses how blessed I am,” Rex said. “I hope each of you have a chance to have a love like this. We’re a good team.”
“The A-Team,” Kim piped in.
Rex and Kim did not start out planning an airport wedding. Just this past Monday, Rex was preparing for a short business trip before leaving on a 90-day trip overseas with his contracting company. Instead of leaving on a 7:30 a.m. flight as planned, Rex postponed his flight plans long enough to propose to Kim on a porch swing. The couple had been discussing marriage, and Rex didn’t want to wait a moment longer. In order to make logistics work, the couple needed to get the marriage license that day to allow for the three-day waiting period.
Kim and Rex set the Saturday date and discussed where the ceremony would take place. Rex was scheduled to give demonstrations of his gyrocopter at the Big Whoop.
“Why couldn’t we do it at the airport?” Kim asked.
“Really, you would do that?” Rex responded.
“Why not? It kind of fits us,” she said. These words came from the woman who once hated to fly. Of course, that was before one of the couple’s early dates which included a ride on a two-seat gyrocopter.
Monday, the couple got a marriage license, Rex left on his business trip, and Kim set about buying a dress.
“The hardest thing was buying the dress,” Kim said. “Everything is red or black this time of year.”
Both Rex and Kim were a bit teary-eyed when talking about the wedding plans, and their love for each other.
We cried when he proposed. We cried on our way to get the marriage license, and we cried on the way here,” she laughed. “We are such saps.”
A jam box piped music into the airport hangar as the couple shared their first dance as husband and wife. Oblivious to the people and planes surrounding them, the couple swayed to music, just kind of winging it as they began their new life.