As many as 3,500 couples from all over the world tied the knot at a mass wedding in South Korea organised by the controversial Unification Church a year after its founder died.
Row upon row of couples, dressed in white dresses and tuxedos, met at the Cheongshim Peace World Centre in Gapyeong, about 37 miles northeast of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, for their big day.
A further 24,000 followers, who have been dubbed 'Moonies' after the church's founder Sun Myung Moon, were also married in other countries via video link.
Celebrations: Newlyweds tie the knot at the Unification Church wedding ceremony in Seoul
Big day: A happy couple hug after marrying in Cheongshim Peace World Centre in South Korea during a Moonie wedding
Followers: Happy couples from 200 countries met in South Korea for the Moonie wedding - the first one since the Unification Church's founder died
The ceremony was presided over by Hak Ja-han - the widow of Sun Myung Moon, who died in September.
Moon founded the church, officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in 1954 and it is considered one of the world's most controversial religious organisations. In 1992 he declared that he and his wife were messiahs.
He presided over mass weddings from the early 1960s and in 1997, 30,000 couples were married in Washington.
One of Moon's sons, Hyung Jin, took over the day-to-day leadership of the church which considers the Korean peninsula sacred.
Cosy: Couples line up side by side during the Moonie service which was watched around the world
Intimate: Some 3,500 couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage vows in the Unification Church's mass wedding arranged by Hak Ja Han Moon, wife of the late Sun Myung Moon
It was all a bit too much for this couple who had a snooze during their wedding ceremony which was attended by thousands of other couples
Memorable: They say you should never upstage the bride but that might be a bit hard when 3,500 wore identical white dresses for their big day
True love: Couples exchange their wedding rings at the mass marriage ceremony in South Korea
Critics have vilified the group in the past as heretical and a dangerous cult, questioning its murky finances and accusing it of indoctrinating followers which the church denies.
Thousands of followers gathered at the funeral of Moon in September and he was buried at a church-owned mansion modelled on the White House after a two-week mourning period.
The Unification Church claims to have 3million followers around the world, although critics say the figure is no more than 100,000.
Devoted: A happy couple who tied the knot at the church which was founded in 1954
Last minute nerves: A bride checks her make-up before she is married to her husband at the Unification Church's mass wedding in South Korea
Critics have vilified the group as heretical and a dangerous cult, questioning its murky finances and accusing it of indoctrinating followers which the church denies
Vows: The Unification Church claims to have 3 million followers around the world, though critics say the figure is no more than 100,000
For better or for worse: The ceremony was presided over by Hak Ja-han - the widow of Sun Myung Moon, who died in September
Mass following: Thousands of couples travelled from all over the world to the church in South Korea to get married at the Moonie wedding
Row upon row of couples, dressed in identical white dresses and tuxedos, met at the Cheongshim Peace World Centre in Gapyeong
Going to the chapel: Moon founded the church, officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in 1954 and is considered one of the world's most controversial religious organisations
Hak Ja Han Moon, right, sprinkles the church's holy water onto newly-married couples in a mass wedding ceremony at the CheongShim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, where 3,500 couples were hitched
Moon, a staunch anti-communist who ran a business empire as well as a church and spent 30 years living in the United States, was born in what is now North Korea in 1920 and escaped to the South in 1950 after being sentenced to hard labour.
He died aged 92 on September 3 of complications due to pneumonia.
His wife remains the symbolic head of the mission that oversees the entire Tongil, Korean for 'Unification' group.
