IKEA IS GENERALLY known as the place where couples go to die.
The limitless choice, expansive area and wildly differing expectations create the perfect storm for bitter arguments. Even the soothing Scandinavian roomsets can’t calm the fury of couples who can’t decide whether or not they truly need another entertainment unit.
Check out 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon’s take on IKEA for a sense what most couples experience:
YouTube/BernieLippman
And yet one New Jersey couple managed to claw through the piped music and air of tension to find true love, reports the New Jersey Star Ledger. Love comes with no instruction booklet and no Allen key, but these crazy kids managed to assemble a relationship from scratch. (Sorry.)
Shirley Stewart met Berkeley “Rashid” Smith in the Elizabeth, Newark IKEA store eight years ago. Shirley had been there with her daughter, then 14 year old Jashirele, who actually first spotted Smith.
After following him around the shop for some time to try to ascertain if he was single (no, really), they eventually connected in the frame section. Yes, this picture perfect couple found love in the photo department. (Again, sorry.)
The couple agreed that if they ever got married, it would be in the very spot that they met. And that is how Stewart and Smith ended up getting married in the frame department of IKEA in Newark.
There have been a handful of weddings in other New Jersey IKEA locations as well as worldwide, but this is the first in the Elizabeth store. According to Olivia Johnson, a spokesperson for the company who was present at the wedding, “We were here for you when you met, so we wanted to be here for you when you exchanged your vows.”
Here are the couple inexplicably stepping over a broom after the ceremony:
(Screengrabs are from a PIX video, which you can watch here in full.)
We just hope they didn’t get IKEA to cater the wedding, right?
