Surprised wedding guests arrived at York Register Office to find the bride and groom had already been married - only minutes before.

But 1950s fans Ian Rhodes and Sadie Smith repeated their vows in front of the 50 onlookers because of a quirk in their wedding arrangements.

Father-of-the-bride Robert Smith, of Malton Road, said everyone was given "two weddings for the price of one".

He said: "By the time I got upstairs at the Register Office she was already married.

"It was a funny old carry-on, but it was a wedding and we expected the odd thing to happen."

He said that the ceremony had been booked a year ago and had to be held in a specific room which could not accommodate all the guests.

So the happy couple decided to repeat their vows in a second, larger room for the benefit of all their well-wishers.

After the service, Sadie and Ian were taken to their reception, at Holgate Road Working Men's Club, in a distinctive 1950s American pick-up truck.

York superintendent registrar Robert Livesey said the "small teething problem" had arisen because of the re-designation of offices at the venue, before a new wedding office is opened next year at the back of the Bootham building.

He said the unusually large size of the wedding party, which was from outside the York area, meant they had one ceremony for guests in a large upstairs room and a second in the designated, smaller register office downstairs.

Updated: 10:35 Monday, June 02, 2003