Couples Marry at Reading Terminal Market in Annual Valentine's Tradition
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- While the Reading Terminal Market is all about food most days of the year, love was in the air on this Valentine's Day as seven couples tied the knot today in the famed marketplace.
Judge Jeffrey Minehart, who normally handles high-profile homicide trials, presided in the Center Court of the historic market.
"Neither rain nor snow nor dark of night can keep the Valentine judge away," Minehart intoned today at the beginning of the festive proceedings.
Minehart took over the duty of presiding over Valentine's Day wedding ceremonies after his colleague, Bernard Goodheart, retired from the bench in 2005.
Among the newlyweds today were Shanta Taylor and Cornell Lisbon, of the city's Nicetown section.
"We already celebrate Valentine's Day, so it's a double anniversary," Taylor said.
She and Lisbon have been together for 12 years, after meeting at Germantown High School, and they have four children.
Then there was Benjamin Riddick and his new bride, Angel. We asked him: Why today, on Valentine's Day, and why at the Reading Terminal Market?
His very diplomatic response, only two minutes into the marriage: "Oh, you've got to ask my wife that one."
