Couples choose Valentine’s Day to marry at the registrar’s office
The Orange County Clerk-Recorders office is expecting about 250 couples to tie the knot on Valentine’s Day at the Old Orange Courthouse in Santa Ana. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Before the ceremony began, the officiant wanted to know: Who flirted first?
The groom, Jerry Tyler, looked guilty.
“I did,” he whispered.
His bride, Stephine Gaston, was by his side in a billowy white dress, her bare back inked with two words: “Jerry’s Girl.”
On Tuesday, the couple stood inside cubicle 4 at the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office in Norwalk, ready to tie the knot on Valentine’s Day.
Across Los Angeles County, more than 350 other couples joined them in what’s become one of the busiest days of the year for wedding ceremonies. In 2014 — the last time the holiday landed on a weekday — nearly 700 couples in the county said I do.
Some showed up Tuesday dolled up with bouffant hairdos and three-piece suits; others wore jeans and sneakers.
Tyler, 40, of Gardena, and Gaston, 25, of Compton, had been planning this for a year. It’s was Gaston’s mother, Loren Scott, who wanted the big day to be on Valentine’s.
When the time came for their vows, Tyler told Gaston:
“Together we will stand, no matter what, no matter who.”
And Gaston told Tyler:
“Thank you for everything you’ve invested in me. If you continue to do that, things will go great.”
Many couples were too nervous for words. They left all the talking to the officiant. That included Dulanjaree Perera, 31, and Tharanga Wickramaarachchi, 36, of Torrance.
The young Sri Lankan couple squeezed more than 40 relatives and friends into their cubicle. Grandmothers, children, siblings and co-workers looked on, snapping photos and video. The couple looked terrified.
“It’s OK,” said officiant Raquel Hernandez-Aguilar. “This isn’t scary. This is a happy moment.”
The hospital worker from Whittier had taken the day off work to marry couples, something she enjoys doing in her spare time.
“It makes you remember love,” said Hernandez-Aguilar, who couldn’t remember how long she’d been married.
“Oh my God,” she said, laughing. “I think 10 years.”
Some soon-to-be husbands said that they chose their Valentine’s wedding date out of convenience.
“I only have to buy one gift,” Fan Feng, 31, joked.
He and his bride, Lu Zhang, 29, have gone through a lot in the past four months. They graduated college and moved from Wisconsin to California.
They are expecting a baby boy — in 12 days.
When things ease up, they plan to travel to China to celebrate big with family.
On this day, two friends joined them as witnesses.
“The truth is,” Feng said, “she’s the sweetest girl I’ve ever known.”
For eight hours, the fifth floor remained an assembly line of civil matrimony. Couples checked in, then headed to a cubicle for their ceremony, then went down the hall to snap photos.
Ceremonies lasted between five and 10 minutes, with each officiant lending his or her own twist to the moment. (John Schatzel, who married Gaston and Tyler, wore Vans and candy cane striped socks under his black robe.)
Many find the best way to get brides and grooms to relax is with humor, even if it’s not always intentional.
Take Hernandez-Aguilar’s second wedding of the day: Melissa Cardenas, 23, and Rogelio Ortuno, 26, of Boyle Heights.
The couple met at work six months ago. They married with Cardenas’ 4-year-old daughter, Lexie, by their side.
It was a serious and silent ceremony until the finale, when the pair were expected to lock lips.
“And now,” Hernandez-Aguilar said. “You may now kill your … I mean kiss. Kiss your bride!”
esmeralda.bermudez@latimes.com
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