Monday as soon as I walked into the County Recorder's Building, I was given a license. 90 minutes later, I had just finished my 5th wedding. Around an hour later I had a final wedding to do. I was then finished for the day. It felt good to be busy. Some days I don't perform any ceremonies and that gets a little boring.
I had a mixture of cultures, ages, and lifestyles. I also had the ubiquitous couple who ticked me off.
The couple were Asian, older pushing 50. He was really emotional and was crying. I was just ready to start and they asked if their friends downstairs could come up for the ceremony. What part of is everyone here did they not understand? I smiled and said of course, phone them to come up.
A young couple in their early 20s were next. She had on a black strapless dress, a white flower in her hair, and black stilettos. She had a full sleeve tattoo and one leg was tattooed. He also had a full sleeve tattoo. As regular readers know, not a fan of tattoos. But I have to admit the art work was beautiful on this couple. They were so happy and so grateful that I married them. That always surprises me how grateful people are. It is almost as if they didn't think they would be allowed to marry. I understand happy, not grateful.
Now we have a tale of two couples, same heritage, different opinions on the importance of the civil ceremony. Both couples were born in India. Both couples had had a cultural ceremony. And there things go their different ways.
Couple one arrived in jeans and tee shirts. They just wanted the ceremony over, no interest at all in what was said or done. Marry us and give us our certified copy of the license. And they were gone.
Couple two were dressed to the teeth. She had her hands, arms, feet, and ankles hennaed. Who ever did them was an artist. Beautiful designs. The bride said it took over three hours for her to be painted. She wore a heavy gold embroidered purple dress with a turquoise border, drape, and leggings. She had on silver heels that had flowers on the toes. He wore a suit. This was definitely not an arranged marriage. There was love in the room. The couple considered the civil ceremony as important as the cultural ceremony. They had saved exchanging rings for the civil ceremony. They wanted both ceremonies to be meaningful.
One last story. If a couple does not have a witness we ask the young person working in the Deli to witness. One of the girls is a wonderful witness. M brings her camera phone in case the couple doesn't have a camera. She will have the pictures emailed to them before they get back on the elevator. Watching her take pictures is an education. She poses them before the wedding, during the wedding she gives them clues on how to stand, hold hands, hold each other. She is really good. And after the wedding while I get the paper work done, she is posing them again. These couples could have gone home with just a picture of them after the ceremony. But no, M has done a professional job in 15 minutes to make sure the couple has pictures to show off to the world. She is a force to behold. And I let her do her thing. She wants the couple happy and understands the importance of good pictures.
Later this weekend I will post about Wednesday's wedding. Yes, I volunteered two days this week.
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