Friday August 9, 1996

The match maker's a computer screen THEY MET ON THE NET: Lisa Grosso and Andrew Hunt began a whirlwind romance on the Internet. Staff photo: TOM MAXWELL

INTERNET fans Andrew Hunt, of Wellington, and his American girlfriend, Lisa Grosso, who began a whirlwind romance on computer screens thousands of miles apart, are to marry at Taunton.
The wedding at Taunton Register Office on Friday, November 1 - and again afterwards on the global computer network - will probably be the world's first Internet wedding.
Andrew, a laboratory supervisor at Relyon, said: "We want to set up our own computerised wedding chapel, complete with our images and we are hoping to have a minister in the States for the wedding responses which we will key into our computers.
They hope that 'guests' from all over the world will be logging in to witness the hi-tech ceremony. The couple will honeymoon in Florida.

Couple met on Internet

Andrew, codenamed Cloud Nine, and Lisa, 40, known as Starr, made contact on the Internet in May.
He said: "You get to know each other really quickly on the Net. It's much better then by post or phone. You get an instant reply and can get much deeper into each other's feelings.
"We met through a real-time chat programme called Internet Relay Chat, where everyone has their own code name."
Lisa, an interior designer, of West Palm Beach, Florida, said: "Some people lie so much about themselves on the Net, and then can't live up to it. We started telling each other everything - warts and all!"
After their contact in May, lots of messages flew across the Atlantic, with computerised photographs of each other.
Lisa had planned a holiday in the UK later this year but Andrew, of Millstream Gardens, Wellington, could not wait that long and offered to send a ticket if she came over straight away.
A week later Lisa flew to the UK for their first get together.
A romantic week in a caravan at Porlock confirmed their love for each other.
On July 27, they announced their engagement on the Internet where their own "home page" tells their story and since then congratulations have flooded in from fellow computer buffs.
The couple's World Wide Web address is: http://www.u-net.com/~andyhunt/ or email andrew@andyhunt.u-net.com

Brian Tucker

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