Marrying at Hy-Vee

Singles have been told that a good place to meet the love of your life is in the produce aisle of a supermarket. You can exchange knowledge about fresh vegetables and maybe telephone numbers. But it's not often you hear of a couple exchanging wedding vows among the lettuce and watermelon.

Alison Marek and Chris Price, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native, didn't meet in the produce aisle, but that's where they'll get married at 5 p.m. May 3. The produce carts will be moved out of the way, a tent will be set up and the couple will be married in front of about 250 invited guests at the Hy-Vee Food Store in St. Joseph, Mo.

If you read today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette, you know the couple met when Chris, an assistant manager at the store, put out a call for volunteers to be on the store's synchronized grocery cart brigade for the annual Pumpkinfest parade in St. Joseph. Alison, who worked at the store while earning her nursing degree, volunteered. The rest is history.

Chris says this is the first wedding ever in a Hy-Vee store. I recall writing a Ramblin' column a number of years ago about a couple marrying in a Cedar Rapids cigarette store. So, that got me to thinking: What's the most unusual place you've heard of people getting married?