Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross actors set wedding date

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross are getting married, just in time for the Fourth of July.

Ralph Archbold and Linda Wilde, who are well-known for their portrayals of the historical figures, plan a very public ceremony on the steps of Independence Hall on July 3.

Archbold says he and Wilde and the entire wedding party will be in costume.

Peter Nero and the Philly Pops will play at the wedding, which will conclude with a private all-American reception at the historic City Tavern.

Archbold and Wilde met Sept. 1 after she hired him for a friend’s wedding toast.

Archbold had initially declined, saying he doesn’t “do weddings,” but Wilde begged and he relented.

The couple then discovered a mutual love of history and education that soon evolved into love for each other — and this spring, they announced their engagement.

Wilde, a pharmacist, is widowed. Archbold’s first wife died, and he is long divorced from his second.

The 66-year-old Archbold says his bride-to-be is a lady and doesn’t give out her age.

Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, is credited in many history books with stitching the first American flag. According to the story, Ross changed the stars in the design from a six-pointed star to the five-pointed one on modern flags.

But historians have found no proof. Some believe that Francis Hopkinson, a member of the Continental Congress from New Jersey, may have designed the flag.