WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa couple chose an unusual venue for their wedding, tying the knot in front of the JC Penney store at a West Des Moines mall where they met for the first time a year earlier. The Des Moines Register reports Bob Jackson and 68-year old Rita Dennis found one another through an online dating site. He’d lost his wife to a terminal illness and was struggling with depression. She’d lost her job, her only distraction in the years after a divorce.

Their first in-person meeting was Sept. 11, 2013. He suggested outside JC Penney at the Valley West Mall because she noted on her profile that she loves to shop and he needed slacks and shoes anyway. Soon they were inseparable. In February, Dennis moved into Jackson’s house in Anita. He cooks. She cleans. “At our age it’s amazing and wonderful,” said Dennis. “I am much more mature and know who I am and what I like and what makes me happy.”

Judge Odell McGhee, who married the couple Friday, which was Jackson’s 70th birthday, wasn’t fazed by the couple’s choice of a wedding venue. Mall managers don’t remember any other weddings there. “You know people,” he said. “They do all sorts of crazy places.”

Dennis wore a dark blue gown and Jackson a gray suit. After the brief ceremony, they ate with their wedding party at a local steakhouse. Next week they’ll leave for a honeymoon cruise to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.