They've never met before but now they're married.
It mightn't have been love at first sight - but it was certainly a marriage at first sight for Irish couple Bebhinn O’Keeffe, 25, and Alan Healy, 31.
The presumably happy couple tied the knot in Waterford yesterday just 15 minutes after meeting for the first time.
O'Keefe's father had to hold her up as he walked her down the aisle to meet Healy, her unknown intended.
The ceremony was celebrated by interfaith minister Angie Alexandra and the couple looked decidedly anxious as they exchanged rings in front of about 100 friends and family at the Hotel Kilkenny.
Speaking after the event, Healy said his new “wife” was “absolutely smashing,” while O'Keefe said she had major butterflies walking up the aisle.
"My mind just went blank and my dad had to hold me up,” she said.
However, she said she already felt a bond with Healy (probably because they were both daft enough to get married to a stranger).
But she did say that co-habitation might not be on the cards. “I don’t think so, but we’ll be spending a lot of time together and obviously we’ll want to get to know each other a little bit more,” she said.
With tongue firmly in cheek, O'Keefe said that living together would have to wait. “It’s not going to be a rushed decision,” she said.
Alan, who works as a courier in Waterford, said he was “nervous, like any groom”, but “very happy I went through with it”.
The wedding was the climax of a so-called social experiment run by the Waterford radio station Beat 102-103.
O’Keeffe from Tramore, Co Waterford, and Healy from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, had beat out 85 other people for the chance to get married live on air.
The radio station is paying for a two-week vacation in Portugal as part of the couple's prize plus free accommodation for a year if the couple decide to stay together after three months.
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