I have three days of weddings I haven't shared with you all. Some were lovely, normal, sweet, but as you know I get the problem people.
We had some dresses that I worried would become a malfunction. A beautiful bride from Thailand had on a long cream colored dress. It was a backless halter top dress that was too big and too long for her. The bride did not have on a bra and when she moved the dress didn't. Nothing was exposed, but pushed it to the limit.
Another bride was pleasingly plump. Her dress was a size too small. The dress was strapless and the girls really wanted out of the tight squeeze. The design of the dress was black back with the front white and black large stripes. The white material was almost transparent. One white stripe went across her navel, which was very evident and across her breasts. At least she had on a bra.
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My favorite look for a bride (and I am not kidding here) was the artfully shredded maternity jeans and the purple, cream, and turquoise striped top. To complete the look the bride's eyelids were striped in purple, cream, and turquoise. Each stripe was the width of a little finger. I know it sounds awful, but this woman was 8 months pregnant with three small children. She was having fun and making a statement.
Several weeks ago I wrote about the screaming bride who was upset because I wouldn't do the wedding ceremony. The groom spoke no English. It is a state law that no outside translators may be used in County performed ceremonies. We have to be able to understand the people being married. Events like this are rare, or so we thought.
The lead clerk H told me they had a couple demanding we marry them. They had to be married that day because it was a lucky day in their culture. None of the clerks thought they spoke English well enough for us to do the wedding. They were from Mongolia and had brought a translator. H told them how to get information to find someone to marry outside our building. They weren't going for it. H finally told them it would be up to the commissioner to decide if the wedding could happen. I went out to the lobby and told the translator to stay put. I took the couple to the front lobby and began talking to them. The bride did not understand anything I said. He understood some English. I told him I could not by law do the wedding. But they could get information at the library a block away on people who could marry with a translator.
He said he couldn't hear me, so I spoke louder. Then he got the translator because he couldn't understand what I was telling him. The translator didn't speak much better English. Finally I convinced them to get their money back for the ceremony and find some one else to marry them. As the refund process was going on, the groom and the translator became irate. All of the people they had dealt with had been rude, they had shouted at them. This from the man who kept cupping his ear and saying he couldn't hear us. They wanted names so they could complain to our superiors. We were discriminating because we didn't provide translators for them. Why didn't we hire Mongolian translators? A refund was finally done, the license reprinted, and they left.
But they didn't stay gone. They changed their minds, they didn't want a license from us. They would take their business else where. I had told them about the state law, that the other 8 Bay Area counties do not take walk ins. They still thought another county would do the ceremony. We refunded their money and they left.
I did a couple of normal weddings and came downstairs. In the lobby is the Mongolian couple. They wanted to buy a license again. They had found someone to perform the ceremony.
I told H that I wanted hazard pay.
What's the hazard pay for you as a volunteer? Two pounds of See's candy?
ReplyDeleteSee's Candy shows up every now and then. And sometimes they feed me pizza or other good food. I was told hazard pay is not an option. They don't get it, so neither will I.
ReplyDelete