Weddings? Oh yes, we had weddings

Monday before I arrived at the county building, they had done 10 wedding ceremonies.  There was no volunteer that morning, so a staff person did the ceremonies.  Trust me I could feel the love, that would be for me, when I walked in.  The lobbies were full, there were weddings to do. 

The marriage desk clerk K told me I did 9 weddings.  I was sure I did 10.  I was right.  The count was off because when she went to lunch a clerk downstairs recorded one of the licenses.  K didn't know about that one.  Nine or ten, either one makes a busy 3 hour period.

There are lots of stand out things for each wedding.  But you all would get tired of reading so much.  I will edit to just a few things.

One wedding the groom was of the age group that "Pants on the Ground" was written about.  He had his hand in a pocket holding up his pants.  He also was holding a tiny baby with the other hand. (They had 4 children under the age of 5.  These little ones screamed and whined the whole time.)  It didn't seem to be a ceremony where I should ask the couple to hold hands during their vows.  I was pretty sure there could be a wardrobe malfunction.

The next couple was older.  He was 65 and she was 57. They radiated love.  After I pronounced them married, they kissed, then they stood and just hugged each other. The groom laughed and said, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

I had a couple from India with multiple names.  Many of the Indian women I have married  have just one name, so this was a shocker.  The groom had 4 names, she had 6 names.  When she signed the license she wrote just initials for 5 of them:   A.N.B.T.V. Doe

As I went back and forth through the lobby I could see a bride with really fancy shoes.  I love pretty shoes.  On the top of each shoe was a different colored flower.  The flowers matched the colors of the bride's dress.  Or so I thought. When I met this couple I realized I had made an error.  The beautiful flowers were not on the shoes, they were tattoos.

Our last couple was originally from Mongolia.  As I have mentioned before, Mongolian names are long, very long.  Yet really not that hard to pronounce.  They usually break into 3 or 4 letter syllables.  Yesterday the bride's name was something like Setantsletrapart.  (That is totally made up by me.  I won't use real names of our customers.) I nailed both their names the first time.  The couple's witness had a darling well behaved  toddler.  During the ceremony I felt the toddler's arms wrap around my leg.  The little one clung to me the rest of the ceremony.  You know what?  It felt really good to have a toddler hugging my leg .