Would you get married at IKEA?

Okay, let’s get the obvious jokes out of the way…

Were their wedding gifts flat-packed?

Will they name their first child Allen?

And now a question: why are all these couples getting married at IKEA?

This Australian couple won a competition to have their wedding at IKEA Tempe. Chad Martin and Lynne Klanbida tied the knot on Valentine’s Day this year beating out 500 couples who had entered from all over the country. When asked why they wanted to get married at IKEA Lynne told the Daily Mail, “It felt right to be able to show our commitment to one another by getting married somewhere we both love and to show the world that romance can be alive anywhere, even in the aisles of IKEA. Our visits to IKEA over the years have actually brought the two of us closer!”

IKEA weddings are now becoming a popular event.

New Jersey couple Shirley Stewart and Berkely "Rashid" Smith met in the framing department of their local IKEA store. When they got engaged eight years later they decided to tie the knot at that very spot. They were married at the weekend. Gawker.com reports the couple were aiming for a low-key event but IKEA had other ideas. The bride said, "I called and explained we wanted it to be just him and I in that section, and just take a picture and that's it." But IKEA used the opportunity to have some fun as well as promote the store, organising an impressive event. Shirley said, "I didn't want to distract the customers or cause a big fuss, but they said they'd do it even better."

Meanwhile, US couple Julie Rodgers and Bear Pittman were married in their local Maryland store after running into each other there, 30 years after graduating from the same high schoool in Washington. 

"We ended up having dinner here and at the end of it, I said, ‘This is one of the best dates I've ever had,'" Rodgers said.

The couple's "aisle" was down the store's escalator and through kitchen supplies. Julie told ABC7,“Ikea did just a beautiful job of everything that they provided for us and I’m just speechless and I’m very seldom speechless."

We wonder if there's method in the madness for IKEA. Couples famously fight at IKEA stores and if the fight doesn't happen in the store then it certainly does while they are trying to construct their purchases using vague instructions at home.

You could say IKEA is a metaphor for marriage – a long aisle on which you are trapped together from the entry all the way to the exit with some fun things along the way, a few fights, some nice rugs and snacks.

Okay, we've taken it too far.