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British Couple Marry in Supermarket

Posted on: Saturday, 28 February 2004, 06:00 CST

Instead of walking down the aisle, the bride - and her 11 bridesmaids - glided up a supermarket escalator.

Scores of shoppers filling up their grocery carts in a store in the northern English town of York paused to watch Saturday as Jill Piggott, 42, and Pete Freeman, 54, tied the knot.

The couple, who became the first Britons to officially marry in a supermarket, chose the location where they met when Freeman was shopping and Piggott was working the checkout aisle.

"People get talking at the checkouts. It's often the same regular faces," said ASDA supermarket spokesman Ed Watson. "With Jill and Pete, they got talking over the baked beans and they took it from there."

The bride made her grand entrance up the store's escalator, wearing a strapless white gown, and was accompanied by the bridal party through the menswear and underwear sections to the ceremony in the shoe department.

The couple departed after the ceremony for 110 official guests to the sound of Scottish bagpipes.

"Our friends thought we were crackers," said Piggott shortly after she became Mrs. Freeman.

Britain has strict rules governing civil weddings, and until 1994 nonreligious ceremonies were restricted to official registry offices. Couples now have a slightly wider choice, such as hotels and manor homes, for their nuptials if the sites are licensed by local authorities.

The ASDA supermarket in York, which sells a range of goods from groceries to clothes, was the first to receive a license to conduct weddings on the premises.

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