A Walmart wedding: Here's why a central Pa. couple got hitched in the garden section

It’s not uncommon for two people who work at the same place to date each other, or for that love to blossom into marriage.

But when the couple marries, and many of their co-workers who helped bring them together can’t get off work for the wedding, what do you do?

One York couple answered that question by bringing the wedding to their co-workers - at the local Walmart.

On Saturday, Chrissy Slonaker Torres married Leida Torres in the Garden Center at the Walmart in West Manchester Township.

The venue choice seems odd on the surface – especially at a time when some weddings take place in ritzy mansions and lavish estates – but dig deeper into their relationship, and the Walmart wedding doesn’t seem as crazy.

‘I found my soulmate’

The couple met in September 2015 when Torres first got a job as a manager at the store. Within the next few months, the pair began mildly flirting – often finding themselves walking past each other just to walk past each other.

Slonaker Torres admits she was scared at first to get into another relationship after her first marriage didn’t go well. But Torres was persistent.

“One day when it was snowing, she asked if I could come pick her up since I have a truck,” Torres said. “When she got in the truck, she said, ‘so, are you going to go on a date with me?’”

A few days later, the pair had their first date at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and things took off from there.

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“I found my soulmate, finally,” Torres said. “She’s the love of my life.”

Slonaker Torres added, “People always say you can find true love on the first time, others it is unexpected, and that’s what happened with me. What we have is beautiful, it’s amazing.”

‘I just told her, ‘Let’s do it’’

In December 2017, the couple decided they were going to get hitched and began planning a private ceremony at their York home.

But as they started sending out invitations, they realized many of their co-workers – dozens of people who have supported the couple – wouldn’t be able to take for the event. After all, the store is open 24 hours, and someone has to be there.

That’s when Slonaker Torres came up with the idea to just bring the wedding to the Walmart.

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“We both have a lot of really close friends that we call family in our Walmart store,” Slonaker Torres said. “We discussed it with the store manager and the home office so that everybody in our store – everybody that we share our lives with – can be a part of the wedding.”

Torres jumped on the bandwagon quickly.

“I just told her, ‘Let’s do it,’” she said. “Our Walmart family has been so supportive. Why not?”

The couple broke the good news to their co-workers at a morning meeting soon after.

“Everyone was so thrilled,” Slonaker Torres said. “They supported us 100 percent on it. They felt blessed that we chose to do it at the store just to have our special day with them.”

‘…this is forever. This is unconditional.’

Who knew that transforming the garden center of a Walmart into a wedding venue was such an easy transition?

Within short order, co-workers placed an outdoor tent in the middle of the section and rolled out a rug. Another friend placed red and white flowers underneath the tent, and others surrounded the section with nearby patio furniture. Robb Green, the former "Marrying Mayor" of Jefferson, was the officiant.

“It was beautiful,” Torres said. “I just loved it.”

Soon, as Slonaker Torres walked up the aisle to begin the wedding, she started hearing the support from not just her family and friends, but customers as well.

“There were some customers that were going around saying “ooooh” and “ahhh,” and that was so sweet,” she said. “You could hear it in the background. I didn’t hear anything negative.”

And with more than 100 family members, co-workers and customers in attendance, the two exchanged vows and were married.

“We were nervous for a bit, but we were excited,” Slonaker Torres said. “It sunk in when we were doing the vows that this is forever. This is unconditional.”

‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover’

Later on Saturday, hours after the wedding came and went, the pair began posting the photos of their Walmart wedding to social media. Soon after, the images went viral.

A customer walking by posted the picture to Facebook – a photo that’s since been shared more than 8,000 times as of Sunday night.

The couple didn’t know how far the photo was reaching, but began seeing the negative comments that came with it.

“(They were saying) we can’t afford a wedding (and) that we’re rednecks,” Slonaker Torres said.

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But, not long after, the comments began to turn positive.

“The people that we know personally, and the customers that know us, they were resharing it and they were turning it into a positive thing,” Slonaker Torres said.

Regardless of the wedding’s virality, the couple isn’t worried about naysayers.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Torres said. “Our family is happy. That’s all that matters to us.”

Slonaker Torres added, “You shouldn’t judge something by the way it looks because there could be a beautiful story behind it. We met in Walmart, we fell in love at Walmart. We could’ve gotten married any other place, but we chose to get married at Walmart.”

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In a few days, the couple will take their first trip to Atlantic City to celebrate their honeymoon and Slonaker Torres’ birthday. Torres said she might gamble at the casino, but she’s already won.

“I feel lucky to have her in my life,” Torres said. “Nobody cares so much about me, other than her. I won big in life.”

Anthony J. Machcinski is the food reporter for the York Daily Record. Follow him on Facebook, @ChinskiTweets on Twitter or email him at amachcinski@ydr.com.