VALENTINE'S DAY, Joe, you were missed.

Today is Valentine's Day. This is the one of the biggest days of the year for marriage commissioners. The county opened up on a Saturday and we married couples from 9:00 to 1:00. In reality, we let in the first ones at 8:40 and we were there until after 2:00. We had 40 appointments and we took walk ins also. I think we were the only county doing weddings today. We are always the only one who does walk ins. Two volunteers and several staff were doing the weddings. We had three rooms to marry in. We had a system and it was working. We marry those that are there.

The staff had a fundraiser to get money to decorate the wedding rooms. Roses all over the building, hearts,and garlands. White tulle was draped from the ceiling down to the floor. There were rose petals laying in the tulle. Tulle pew markers were in one room. The staff went all out. The public and I were stunned with the beauty of the rooms. Some couples thought they would just be married in an office.

I did for sure 18 weddings and probably 3 or 4 more. I lost track and not sure if I counted all the walk ins I did. The day was fabulous, exciting, and boy do my feet hurt. As soon as I did a wedding, they would hand me more paper work and point me to the next couple. I rarely went downstairs to get a couple. No breaks were calculated into the schedule. We just did weddings.

We had limos with large wedding parties. Brides in gorgeous long white dresses, bridesmaids in red, and the men in black. Lovely bouquets of red roses with crystal dew drops on them. Bouquets of gardenias that made the room smell like heaven. Little girls in red and white satin dresses dropped rose petals in front of the bride. We had brides in red velvet, in red satin, and brides in jeans.

And we had TV crews from all networks. They filmed any wedding party that did not object. Some were not comfortable with the cameras, others loved it. The crews were very respectful of the couples. They even removed their equipment from the room for the shy brides.

The only down note. Joe was not there to marry couples today. Joe, you were missed. And trust me I would have much rather worked with you than a nameless volunteer.

It was a lovely day, a fun day, and a perfect day. I didn't get the awful couple who were fighting ( the groom did not want to be there and hid in the bathroom for a loooonnng time). I had only happy happy couples.