The brides - all 2000 of them - wore white. The grooms looked sharp in their wedding suits and bow ties. One thousand couples tied the knot, and another 3000 renewed vows at a mass ceremony in Gapyeong, South Korea. The wedding was conducted by the Unification Church founded by the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
His widow, Han Hak-ja, blessed couples with holy water, as thousands in the audience at the Cheongshim Peace World Centre applauded.
The church, which for years has been derided by critics as a dangerous cult which indoctrinates followers - the so-called Moonies - has held large scale weddings for decades, with self-declared messiah Moon playing matchmaker and pairing couples who had never met and sometimes did not even speak the same language.
