It was hosted by Absolute Radio’s Breakfast Show, who’d been running a competition all week to find a couple who were crazy enough to want to get married first thing in the morning - on live radio – and with a million people listening as they exchanged vows.
On the plus side, British Telecom was paying for everything. This included the venue, dress, suits, rings, cake and the honeymoon, not bad at all!
After the breakfast team had narrowed the hundreds of applicants down to three finalists, the winning pair were chosen yesterday by public vote. Rikki and Rachel clinched the prize by the narrowest of margins.
Rikki told their suitably unusual love story to breakfast show host Christian O’Connell, who was dressed for the occasion in a monkey – sorry, I mean morning suit.
“I fell in love with Rachel when we were just fifteen but we split up and after school we lost touch – for ten years. I then found her on Facebook.”
“Did you poke her?” Christian asked. “What? That’s a Facebook term isn’t it?” “I checked she was single,” Rikki said, “and when we finally met up it was as if we’d never been apart.”
Aw!
London Zoo provided some very special guests for the big day, including Komodo dragons, a South American raccoon called Kinkaju, a pair of giraffes and a llama.
When the young female keeper brought the raccoon in for a closer look, Christian asked: “I know we’ve only just met but can I stroke your Kinkaju?”
As soon as the ceremony was over, the champagne started to flow and Mr and Mrs Parker admitted they were pretty shell-shocked about the whole affair, which, Rikki said, felt “surreal”.
“Yes, it was strange looking across the room during the ceremony and seeing that animal over there,” Rikki said. “That’s Ritchie, our producer, steady on,” Christian said. “Although, to be fair - “. Ritchie happened to be halfway through munching his fourth Danish pastry at that moment.
After chatting to Christian, there was a short wedding disco before the bouquet toss (enthusiastically caught by newsreader Maggie Doyle) and one final toast and that was it. Mr and Mrs Parker were off to spend their honeymoon in the Maldives, what a start to married life…
Right, I’m knackered, time for a cuppa and a lie down.