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Retail romance: Metro Detroit couple marries inside Walmart

Posted at 7:04 AM, Oct 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-05 07:05:22-04

You can call it a match made in Walmart, retail romance, perhaps even love in aisle 3 — whatever you call it, it led to one of the most interesting wedding parties in recent memory.

Dave Medford and Merissa Anderson, now Medford, tied the knot in front of family and friends inside a Walmart in Saline, Mich.

“It was kind of a joke,” said Merissa Bedford, now back at work. “We were never really that serious about it.”

“It was sarcasm, we’d say that Walmart has everything that we need,” added David.

Over time the jokes started to become more serious. They considered other locations, but as David Bedford started to think about it he felt like Walmart really did make sense for the couple.

Roughly four years ago the couple met inside a Walmart in Guilford, Connecticut. David, who was at the time working as a loss-protection employee, stopped a shop-lifter. Merissa had to help out with the process due to her front-desk job. 

Eventually the two began dating, changed stores together, and now the couple can say they’re the first to get married inside the Saline, Michigan Walmart.

“We could have picked other places, like a Mackinac, but once we left that place it would dissolve,” said David. “Here is where it came together, this is where we come everyday, we see it… the place we got married.”

David and some co-workers spent the night before re-decorating the patio center for the wedding. When the garage to that section of the store opened it was the first time he saw Merissa in her wedding dress, and the first time she saw the place she’d get married.

A relative played guitar for the ceremony, the store manager walked Merissa down the aisle and another manager married the two off.

After a week off of work the two returned to their jobs this week. Asked it anything felt different, Merissa said that the biggest difference are the questions customers ask. Yes, word has spread around Saline about the couple that got married inside of Walmart.