{"id":16680,"date":"2017-02-16T23:36:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T23:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16680"},"modified":"2023-10-05T23:43:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T23:43:18","slug":"multiple-couples-get-hitched-on-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2017\/02\/16\/multiple-couples-get-hitched-on-valentines-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple couples get hitched on Valentine\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY BILL DONOVAN<\/strong>
\nSPECIAL TO THE TIMES<\/p>\n

GALLUP<\/strong> \u2014 It was marrying day in Gallup Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Men and women from all over the county came to the McKinley County Courthouse throughout the day to take advantage of Valentine\u2019s Day to get married in the courthouse rotunda.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a program that the county has sponsored for decades as a way to honor the holiday and give couples in the county an inexpensive wedding that they and their families will remember for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

A total of 28 couples came in during the day, many as walk-ins, to get hitched by either a judge or a pastor who volunteered their services for the day.<\/p>\n

Among those who showed up were Dion Lemy from Zuni and Alyssia Bryant from Naschitti, New Mexico, a couple who had met a year ago when she got her hair cut at his barber shop. She loved the work he did on her hair so much that a romance blossomed.<\/p>\n

In a wedding gown, she glowed as she walked down the aisle to where her soon-to-be husband and Probate Judge Charles Long Sr. were waiting. The ceremony itself took only a few minutes but the couple stayed around for more than 15 minutes enjoying the occasion with friends and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it being Valentine\u2019s Day, it would be a good time to get married,\u201d said the groom.<\/p>\n

Like many of the couples that showed up on Tuesday, they brought family and friends who witnessed the ceremony and took photos with their cell phones.<\/p>\n

The rotunda had been decorated as a wedding chapel and wedding cake was provided for the newlyweds and their guests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this as a convenience for people,\u201d said Marlene Custer, McKinley County deputy clerk who helped organize the event and made sure everything went smoothly on a couple\u2019s most important day.<\/p>\n

Besides Long, Gallup Magistrate Judge Kenneth Howard Jr.<\/p>\n

And the Rev. Ty Platero, pastor of the nearby Journey Church, were on hand for part of the day to help wed the couples.<\/p>\n

Custer pointed out that not only was this more romantic than just appearing before a judge in his chambers, it was also inexpensive. There was no charge for the ceremony and the couple had to only pay the customary $25 fee for the marriage license that is mandatory in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone really enjoyed themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY BILL DONOVAN SPECIAL TO THE TIMES GALLUP \u2014 It was marrying day in Gallup Tuesday. Men and women from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16681,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680\/revisions\/16681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}