TRAVIS McIntosh and Matt McCormick will get married tomorrow yet the matrimonial union has horrified gay rights groups.

Heterosexual best mates McIntosh and McCormick, who have known each other since the age of six, are getting married as winners of a competition run by The Edge radio station in New Zealand.

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media_camera Expect their marriage to last two years ... Heterosexual best mates Travis McIntosh and Matt McCormick agreed to get married to win a trip to the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Picture: The Edge media_camera Getting married in front of 60 family and friends ... Matt McCormick helps Travis McIntosh adjust his suit. Picture: The Edge

After more than 200 entries, McIntosh, a 23-year-old engineering student at Otago University, and McCormick, a 24-year-old teacher at Musselburgh School in Dunedin, were chosen from three bromance couples to win an all-expenses paid trip to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.

The catch was that the buddies had to get married — a same-sex wedding — and they will do that tomorrow in front of 60 family and friends at New Zealand’s home of rugby, Eden Park, in Auckland.

A celebrant will make the union legally binding, the marriage will be streamed live on the radio station.

“We are not here to insult anyone. We are here to do our own thing and travel our own path,” McCormick told the Otago Daily Times.

McIntosh said the wedding was not mocking the institution of marriage.

“It’s just seeing how far two good mates would go to win a trip to the Rugby World Cup.

“We picked up our wedding certificate and the nerves are starting to really hit home.”

McIntosh said they were still to decide if they would a hyphenated surname but thought their marriage would last at least two years.

“Matt and Travis, or Mattress as I have affectionately named them, are great guys. They are excited about next year’s trip to London but are just as pumped about their big day. It’s not going to be your traditional wedding. In fact, this may be the first wedding in history where the newlyweds will try to crack onto the guests,” said Dom Harvey from The Edge Breakfast Show.

media_camera Brotherly love ... The best mates have won an all-expenses paid trip to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England to watch their beloved All Blacks play. Picture: Hannah Peters

Same-sex marriage became legal in New Zealand in August last year, yet gay groups have condemned the marriage of McIntosh and McCormick.

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Otago University Students’ Association Queer Support co-ordinator Neill Ballantyne told the Otago Daily Times that the wedding was an “insult” as marriage equality was a “hard fought” battle for gay people.

“Something like this trivialises what we fought for,” he said.

The competition promoted the marriage of two men as something negative, “as something outrageous that you’d never consider”, Ballantyne said.

LegaliseLove Aotearoa Wellington co-chairman Joseph Habgood told the Otago Daily Times that the competition attacked the legitimacy of same-sex marriages.

“The point of this competition is that men marrying each other is still something they think is worth having a laugh at ...

“Maybe on the day that statistics around mental health for LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) people are better, when high schools are safe places for LGBTI youth, we can look back on all this and laugh.

“But competitions like this don’t bring that day any closer.”

The Edge has a reputation for outrageous weddings. They married two complete strangers, Paula Stockwell and Zane Nicholl, 13 years ago.

Subsequently The Edge has married two more sets of strangers, eloped three couples to Las Vegas, married a couple without clothes in Nudie Nuptials, left the groom to do all the work in Man Made Wedding and last year celebrated same sex marriage by marrying two gay couples.

Originally published as Buddies’ wedding horrifies gay groups