cue the Mendelssohn....and da horns!

[ellenkushner]

A friend is thinking of getting married in NYC in a Civil Ceremony at the City Clerk's office on Centre Street. We've found their website, but it just gives Dry Facts. Have you done it, or witnessed one there? What's it like?

Comments

[ygolonac.livejournal.com]

Don't know if it's the same place but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiKidxaop84

[unovis-lj.livejournal.com]

I was witness to my friend's wedding there 10 years ago.
It was bare-bones municipal office setting, but everyone official was friendly. We sat in a large waiting room until our names were called and then went into a small room where the clerk stood behind a podium. He asked if rings were to be exchanged (they were) and he put both rings in front of him on the podium and read a short statement. I said I had no objections to the wedding (apparently, my role as witness), he handed the rings to the couple to place on each other's hands, declared them married, and they kissed and he congratulated them. The wedding certificate was printed out on an office printer and handed over outside.

The crowd in the waiting room ran the gamut from jeans and T-shirts to whole wedding parties in gowns and formal dress. It was basic but not at all bleak. We all took pictures, as did other parties, in the park across the street.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

"not bleak" is good - thanks!

[redbird]

I did this in 1999; my aunt was taken enough by this to follow in my footsteps some months later.

Basically, you can bring friends and/or family (in addition to the one witness you're expected to have--though I suppose I could have asked someone who was in line behind us to witness if necessary).

We waited around for a bit (not a terribly long bit), then our names were called and we went into a room where the official city employee did the ceremony. She asked if there was a ring, and seemed surprised that there wasn't. Then she asked for flowers, and roadnotes handed her a red rose. The formal version of "do you want to marry her?/Yes/Do you want to marry him?/Yes./Good, you're married" followed. After a minute for me, cattitude, and Roadnotes as witness to sign the forms, we were done. We went back outside, some photos were taken on the steps of a nearby building, and my mother took us to Little Italy for tea/coffee and pastries.

When my aunt followed suit, everyone adjourned to her apartment afterward instead, but she lives on 24th Street and I live on 218th Street.

I've also seen wedding parties taking pictures in City Hall Park afterwards. If the weather is nice, they could take their pictures on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Some of the other couples getting married were dressed in things closer to traditional wedding garb; I was in a silk blouse and wool trousers, appropriate for February for someone who is recovering from bronchitis.

It's also relevant that both my aunt and I did this in 1999; the security has almost certainly gotten more time-consuming since, and I don't know whether anything else has changed.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Oh, great . . . now she wants us all to walk to the Brooklyn Bridge . . . ;)

WNYC radio studios were in the same building until recently - the security's a nuisance, but it was fun seeing the wedding couples!

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

That's what we did, in, er um, 2004? No -- 2006. I think.

Anyway, make sure your witnesses bring ID. My sister forgot hers, and couldn't get in to the building (fortunately we had also asked his brother, and you only need one witness). We sat in the corridor outside for a few minutes, then went into a private room with a podium. "Do you take him?" "Do you take her?" (I may have the order wrong.) No stupid honor & obey shit. Very basic and simple and just what we wanted.

We took our pictures on the plaza outside (didn't even cross the street to go into the park). I wore a red velvet skirt/jacket; he wore, um, a suit? I think? And alexanderjasper wore a suit, too. Or something like that. I have a picture somewhere, because we used it as the label for our Giftmas dressing the next year (and kept a bottle for ourselves, that's still our dressing bottle today).

Oh, and we went to the City Hall store and bought our wedding china beforehand. (4 of those ceramic versions of the canonical NYC Greek design coffee cup.)

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

P.S. No rings for us, and no surprise on the part of the clerk.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

So useful! Thanks!!

Now I just wonder if they still have those coffeecups.....

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Oh- and do you remember if they give you a chance to set up a time, or do you just show up and wait in line until they call your number?

[redbird]

When I went, it was show up and wait in line, but the line wasn't very long. (The line for the marriage license, the day before, was of similar length; I was vaguely startled to be asked where my parents had been born, but duly wrote "Germany" and "the Bronx" in the appropriate spaces.)