Pasta rings and piratical patois will feature at the world's first legal wedding by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Akaroa tomorrow.
Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young will be married at the world's first legal wedding by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Photo: SUPPLIED/Toby Ricketts
Toby Ricketts and Marianna Young will be married by the leader of the New Zealand Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and attendees - bride and groom included - will be in full pirate regalia.
Pastafarians believe in an airborne noodle god, wear colanders on their heads and practice a gentle form of piracy.
The couple are recent converts to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and the bride-to-be Ms Young said a conventional marriage and all the traditions that went along with it did not appeal.
"So this offered an opportunity to do something different that fitted for us."
Mr Ricketts said the couple would begin the day of the wedding by "sailing the high seas" with family and friends, and would then arrive ceremoniously on the wharf at Akaroa.
According to their lore the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world. Photo: Facebook / Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster NZ
"The ceremony will commence ... with a customised script and lots of interesting traditions that we have kind of cooked up especially for the occasion."
Rather than vows, "terms of engagement" would be read out in pirate-speak, and pasta rings would be exchanged - and probably eaten - during the ceremony.
"There will be many colander crowns distributed", Mr Ricketts said.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster started in the mid-2000s as a protest against the teaching of intelligent design in schools in the United States. The church say they are not atheist or an anti-religion club, rather they are "anti (the) crazy nonsense done in the name of religion".
According to their lore, the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world and the first people - who were pirates. Adherents wear colanders on their heads, but pirate garb is also considered appropriate.
The Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages approved the church to conduct marriages late last year.
The head of the New Zealand church, Karen Martyn, became the first marriage celebrant or "Ministeroni" earlier this year.
