Wednesday I was at the Marriage Factory. We were fairly busy, but not slammed like last week. Clerk M handed me the license and said, "They're a nice little couple. She is African American and he is Indian with the whole family with them." M then walked off. I started checking the license. Bride born 1940, never been married. Groom born 1975, married once. One of those dates has to be a misprint. I take it back to M and she starts laughing. "I wondered how long it would take you to come back to me." All the info is correct.
I am not one to judge. Love comes to all ages. So I gather everyone up and we go upstairs to the wedding room. As we walk in the bride says, "Where do you want us to stand? Let's get this over with. I have to go to work." That really sounds loving. The whole time everyone except the bride is talking in what I guess to be Hindi. I get information and give instructions and we begin.
Everyone is still talking as I am doing the ceremony. The groom is watching one of the men closely. I ask do you take this woman . . . nothing. The man barks out something in Hindi and the groom says yes. I yelled, "Hold it, doesn't he speak English?" Everyone, except the groom, says yes, he speaks English. I tell them I have to be sure, it is illegal to do the ceremony if he can't understand me. They all keep talking for the groom. Finally I get them to be quiet and question the groom. (I later found out M had done the same thing.) The groom did understand English fairly well. So we moved on in the ceremony.
During the ring ceremony he put the ring on her right hand, OK, some cultures do that. Then he slipped the ring back off and palmed it. She put the ring on his left hand and he kept it on. This is just weird. They then back away from each other. I pronounced them married and they just walked away from each other.
She was leaving when I told her the witnesses needed to sign, and they would then get their certified copy of the license. She didn't want to wait for the paper work. I explained if there was an error, we all had to re sign. She was up in my face with I'm busy and have to get to work. I said fine, leave. If there is an error, then you will all need to be here at 8:30 in the morning to re sign the license. While she was telling us how busy she was, Marriage Desk Clerk D found an error. The Bride decided she could wait.
While waiting the couple was talking privately, but I could hear them. She said something like that's done, do you have everything you will need? She signed the license again, and left while the rest of us signed.
After everyone left, D and I talked about the couple. We wondered how much the bride was paid to marry this man. Trust me there was no love in the room.
Just how dumb do they think immigration is?
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