Couple Married in World's First Pastafarian Wedding

The wedding rings were made of pasta, the ceremony was held on a pirate boat, and when it came time for the kiss, the bride and groom slurped up either end of a noodle until their lips met. The AP reports the world's first Pastafarian wedding, conducted by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, was held Saturday in New Zealand. The group, which began in the US as a protest against religion encroaching into public schools, has gained legitimacy in New Zealand, where authorities recently decided it can officiate weddings. For Saturday's ceremony, the groom, Toby Ricketts, vowed to always add salt before boiling his pasta, while bride Marianna Fenn donned a colander on her head.

"The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world. We know that," said marriage celebrant Karen Martyn, aka the Ministeroni. "We weren't around then and we didn't see it, but no other religion was around to see it either, and our deity is as plausible as any other." Ricketts, 35, and Fenn, 33, said they've been a couple for four years but decided just three weeks ago to get married, after another Pastafarian couple's plans to be first to wed fell through. "I would never have agreed to a conventional marriage, but the idea of this was too good to pass up," Fenn said. The wedding feast was an all-pasta affair, while the wedding cake was topped with an image of his noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (A US judge ruled this week that Pastafarianism is parody and not a religion.)