ST. AUGUSTINE - Wedding bell cutouts hung at the entrance to the service department and Ford Motor Co.'s signature blue and silver adorned a balloon arch in the dealership showroom as bride and groom said their vows.
For Ford Mustang lovers Vickie Sue Kilpatrick and Ronnie Cox, it was the perfect way to mix two loves.
"Mustang" is even etched in their wedding bands.
The couple met three years ago at Family Worship Center in St. Augustine. Ronnie Cox is a native of the city and his bride-to-be hailed from Callahan.
"We hadn't talked three minutes and we were talking Mustangs," said Kilpatrick shortly after she became Vickie Sue Cox on Sunday afternoon. "We can spot a Mustang by a tail light in the dark."
When he proposed about six months ago, Cox asked if she would see about having their wedding at the Bozard Ford Lincoln Mercury dealership by the outlet malls. She put it off.
They checked other places then finally called the dealership. The owners agreed.
"I couldn't think of a better wedding," Cox said before the ceremony.
Inside the showroom, Mustangs in his and hers motifs flanked the altar - a white convertible with veil on one side and a black coupe with bow tie on the other. Another eight Mustangs lingered just outside the doors and the new owners of a blue Shelby version of the classic American muscle car brought it back to the dealership for wedding photos.
The customer reception desk became a gift table and a display case filled with part of Ronnie Cox's collection of toy Mustangs, models, grills and other emblems of the car sat off to the side.
"I even buy video games with Mustangs in them," he said.
He has owned Mustangs in the past and said it is the varying body styles and myriad modifications that keep them exciting as opposed to, say, a Chevrolet Camaro.
"You could do a hundred things to a Mustang," he said. "A Camaro, you could put a couple of paint jobs on it."
He did just sell a Chevy truck, he admits.
"I like Chevy trucks but I like Mustang cars," he said.
Though Vickie Sue Cox has loved Mustangs since a girlfriend's father bought one for his daughter years ago, she just got her first. She always vowed to own one but planned to wait until her sons, now 23 and 26, were grown, she said. When she earned her degree as a medical assistant last year, her fiance bought her a red 2002 five-speed.
Bozard general manager Letti Bozard said the dealership is usually closed Sundays so the doors were opened and the wedding planners were let in. Furniture was pulled from all corners of the business to turn the showroom into a chapel and reception hall.
"If it moves, you can move it," she said she told them.
Bozard said the dealership made sure there were black and white Mustangs available.
She also contacted Ford about the plans and as a surprise, the Coxes were given a table coffee book "The Mustang Dynasty" inscribed with a personal note from Bill Ford Jr., executive chairman of the company and great-grandson of founder Henry Ford.
Debbie Lewis, the sales and marketing manager at the Quality Inn Historic where Ronnie Cox is a night auditor and his new wife works at the front desk, was among about 70 guests at the wedding.
"I just think it is exciting that they have a great passion and they can share that," Lewis said.
As the wedding ceremony concluded and the Coxes had turned and been introduced as man and wife, the band kicked in.
The song that launched the marriage: "Mustang Sally."