Air force couple marry 7,000 miles apart

The bride wore camouflage and combat boots. The groom, 7,000 miles away in Qatar, forgot the ring. But nothing could stop the wedding.

Air Force Staff Sergeants Courtney Reynolds, 26, and Christopher Bowden, 25, exchanged vows via teleconference yesterday, kissing the video monitors when a chaplain pronounced them married.

“I always said I was going to be untraditional,” said Reynolds, who wore a white veil along with her uniform. She said she decided to forgo a wedding dress because she knew Bowden would be wearing camouflage.

The couple, both members of the 21st Security Forces Squadron, had dated for five years, and with deployments threatening to keep them apart for several more months, they decided to marry over the phone.

The bride’s mother, from Florida, and sister, from New Jersey, joined her in a conference room at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, the headquarters for US Northern Command where Reynolds works. Her other sister listened in by cell phone.

Following the ceremony, Bowden cut into a cake and Reynolds tossed her bouquet to her best friend, Staff Sergeant Barbara Brooks.

“This is probably one of the happiest days of my life next to, I don’t know, Atlanta losing the Super Bowl,” Bowden said. “I love you, sweetheart.”