Wedding in a box: England's quickie £1 wedding

AutoWed, a new gadget from Concept Shed, an English firm of “mad inventors” gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘quickie wedding’.

Officially called the AutoWed Wedding Machine, the bright pink prototype gizmo is a novelty wedding vending machine that offers couples the ability to get hitched quickly and cheaply.

Of course, it’s not exactly legally binding, but it sure sounds like fun!

Input your £1, follow the audio prompts delivered by your robot-voiced celebrant and, if both parties give their consent (and press 1 for ‘I Do’), the machine will spit out your wedding rings, plastic, of course, as well as a customised wedding certificate.

But hold on to it, because, should you decide to re-wed – or just marry someone else, you’ll get a 10 per cent discount on your next AutoWed ceremony.

“We mix design, engineering and creativity to build wacky things, sometimes from our own ideas and sometimes with ideas from clients,” explains inventor, Englishman Sam Lanyon, to the Star.

“That kind of wacky stuff goes through my head, often to my partner’s despair,” he said, explaining how he came up with the idea. “I should be remembering the shopping, but instead I’m inventing crazy things. It’s not a worthy trait.”

The ceremony is simple and you get to choose your wedding march and, once your rings have been exchanged, your robotic celebrant will congratulate you and instruct you to kiss.

Should things not work out, hold on a bit. Apparently Lanyon is already working on AutoDivorce.

Lanyon says he’s suprised at how much interest his prototype wedding machine has received from across the globe, including the US, Japan, Portugal and Italy.

He is no considering creating a mini version for pubs and hotels and says, “Hopefully there will be one in a bar near you soon.”