Submitted by Quinn Ward From Illinois
My fiance and I decided on a simple civil wedding ceremony in lieu of the large church wedding my mother wanted me to have. We, both, like to be on time so we arrived at the courthouse about an hour ahead of schedule. After we signed in we had quite a bit of time on our hands to just sit and wait. Our wedding ceremony was scheduled for 1 p.m. When one finally rolled around we went to the assigned courtroom only to find out it was in use and we could not enter.
We took that in stride hoping it would be open soon. After about 10 minutes we began to get worried. We tried to call the woman who signed us in but she did not answer her phone and without her clearance we could not enter that section of the building. Meanwhile our family and friends had filled up the waiting area and were looking to us to explain why we hadn’t started.
We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to get married that day and it would be difficult for us to get back to the courthouse on a weekday. We live six hours away and had to take several days off work just to be there in time to get our marriage license.
On top of that a crowd began to gather outside our courtroom waiting for their scheduled court appearance. I found myself wishing we were just on the road for our honeymoon. Finally, the bailiff stepped out and told the crowd the judge was running late; but would be in soon. She also announced that a wedding needed to be perform before court would start. Several women in the crowd expressed an interest in watching the wedding, and we felt a little awkward with these new wedding guests.
The judge finally arrived and we filed into the courtroom, luckily with only our invited guests. He was very pleasant, plus his name added to the fun of the ceremony. Not too many people can say John Kennedy married them.
After the wedding ceremony the bailiff took our pictures. While she was sweetly telling us to smile a side door opened. Her sweetness quickly faded as she yelled to whoever opened the door, “I told you to keep the convicts in the holding cell until after the wedding.”
After the ceremony, when it was just the two of us we laughed and laughed about what she said. That is the part we will always remember with a smile.
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