Here’s the story behind this Vermont couple’s Walmart wedding - Boston.com

From getting a haircut to getting an oil change, there are many things you can do at a Walmart. Now getting married can be added to the list.

Joanne and William Boulanger said “I do” on Monday in the Berlin, Vermont Walmart — where they work as managers of different departments — while standing in front of a display of “Fresh Quality Flowers” and just to the left of a Coinstar machine.

The store posted a video of the ceremony to its Facebook page on Wednesday.

“Join our winning team here in Berlin and maybe you’ll find your soulmate too!!!!!!!!!,” it’s captioned.

As of just after 5 p.m. Thursday it had roughly 47,000 views.

“Who says you can’t get everything at Walmart?” one woman can be heard asking at the beginning of the video.

Joanne Boulanger wore a black-patterned dress with a black cardigan overtop, while her new husband donned a white button-down shirt with a black-and-white-striped tie and a flower corsage in the front pocket.

The couple met at the store. Joanne Boulanger has worked there for about three years, she said, while William Boulanger has been there just over a year. The pair had planned to head to the courthouse, but the store’s personnel manager offered for them to get married there.

“Originally, it was supposed to be in the backroom in our break-room area, and last minute they were like, ‘Let’s do it out front where the flowers are,’” Joanne Boulanger told Boston.com. “We said, ‘OK, why not, there’s flowers everywhere.’”

Their officiant, Todd Soble, is an assistant manager at the store, but also happens to be a minister.

“We’re gathered here today to celebrate one of life’s greatest moments, the joining of two hearts, and to give recognition to the worth and the beauty of your love,” Soble can be heard saying in the video. “And to also add our best wishes as a group of people, whether we’re workers, family, friends, we shall unite this couple today in marriage.”

Along with co-workers, family and friends, customers stopped to watch the ceremony, Joanne Boulanger said.

“Of course it was a little nerve-racking because there was people everywhere,” she said. “There was customers shopping and stopping and asking questions and, you know, taking pictures and videos.”

The couple didn’t think about the attention they would receive from their ceremony, according to Joanne Boulanger.

“We were just doing it because it was fast, it was easy, it was convenient,” she said.

Plus, her new husband plans to join the Army and she said he could be heading off soon. The couple is planning a second ceremony for either late summer or early fall to gather all of their loved ones together in a more traditional wedding, but this one did make them husband and wife in terms of the law.

The Berlin Police Department shared the video to its Facebook page.

“I think I have seen it all now,” Sgt. Chad Bassette said in the post. “A wedding at Walmart in Berlin Vermont. They are definitely a one stop shop for everything.”

Many of the comments on social media have been negative, but many have also been positive and supportive, too, according to Joanne Boulanger.

“When it first got online and I was reading the comments, I did get quite upset because there was a lot of hurtful things in there, a lot of really mean stuff,” she said. “Then I watched all the positive, and the positive just blew out of the water all the negative and it just kind of threw it to the side for me.”

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