Modern Family co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson says he faced discrimination growing up in New Mexico.

Ferguson and his husband Justin Mikita played hosts to New Zealand's first ever mid-air gay marriage on Monday, the first day a recently approved marriage law took effect.

Lynley Bendall and Ally Wanikau exchanged vows at 39,000 feet as the winners of Air New Zealand's Love Is In The Air contest. They won the contest by submitting a video featuring their three young foster children holding signs saying why their mothers should get marriage aboard a plane. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)

The couple, together 13 years, married on a domestic flight between Queenstown and Auckland.

(Related: New Zealand gay marriage law takes effect Monday.)

In comments to the AP, Ferguson said that he was bullied as a child.

“It was difficult,” he said. “I was name-called a lot, I had to move schools a few times because I was bullied. A lot of those people who bullied me are now very jealous of my career, and have tried to connect with me on Facebook. And, of course, I'm a very forgiving person, but, you know, I don't totally forget.”

The wedding couple's reception was held in a hangar and featured live music and a rainbow-colored wedding cake. Their prize package also includes a honeymoon in Palm Springs, California.