Checkout couple in Britain's first superstore wedding

"I'm just popping down to Asda to get a husband - won't be long."

With these words, perhaps, Jill Piggott trotted down to her local supermarket yesterday and got married. Her wedding to Pete Freeman in the clothing department of the Asda in York was Britain's first superstore wedding.

To say, however, that she went down the aisle would not be true. Instead, accompanied by her 11 lilac-clad bridesmaids and wearing a strapless white gown, she made her entrance up the store's escalator and through the menswear and underwear sections to the ceremony in the shoe department.

There, amid the discount signs and temptingly reasonable footwear, she was married by City of York head registrar Robert Livsey.

To a skirl of Scottish pipes playing that traditional air - the Asda theme tune - she then departed through the automatic doors to her reception and a new life as Mrs Freeman.

The bride works on the Asda checkout, and her husband is a regular customer. Very regular, it turned out, for the romantic grocery buyer kept making a beeline for her queue. The blushing groom said: "Our eyes just sort of met at the checkout." Such is fate, and so they became the first couple to take advantage of Asda's new wedding licence. The scoffers may scoff, but we wish them well.