16284/1RANGEBOURNE Pet Care in Devizes will close on Saturday for the first time in its existence for the wedding of owner Andy Sheppard and long-time staff member Jo Garrett.

Because all the shop assistants have been invited to the wedding at St Andrew's Church in Long Street five of them will be bridesmaids there is no one left to look after the shop.

It is second time around for both as Mr Sheppard has three grown-up children from an earlier marriage and Ms Garrett has also been married before.

The couple met when Ms Garrett came to the shop 20 years ago as a 17-year-old trainee, straight from Devizes School.

She said: "I didn't really want to work with animals but now I love them. I wouldn't want to work anywhere else."

Mr Sheppard set up Rangebourne Pet Care in the 1970s as a spin-off from the Rangebourne Kennels which his parents ran in Potterne.

Mr Sheppard popped the question to Ms Garrett at Monument Valley in Arizona while the couple were on holiday in America two years ago.

They will be returning to the USA for their honeymoon, travelling to California.