Ceremony May Last 1 1/2 Minutes, but She Hopes the Marriage Is Forever

“I do.”

But sometimes, according to Kathy L. Lear, “Maybe” might be more realistic.

Many times while reading the marriage ceremony, “I get the feeling this one isn’t going to last,” said Lear, who performs about 70 marriages a week along with other duties as a clerk in the county marriage bureau in Santa Ana.

Lear reads the couples her specially prepared vows:

I remind you both to remember that love, loyalty and understanding are the foundations of a happy and enduring home.

She is an Orange County deputy marriage commissioner who issues the license for $15 and then marries the couple in a 1 1/2-minute ceremony at the counter of the licensing office. If the couple exchange rings, it takes 2 1/2 minutes.

One marriage took a lot longer when the groom stopped the ceremony three times and walked to the nearby hallway to think about it. “He finally decided to go through with it,” said Lear, “but 15 minutes after the ceremony, he came back and said he didn’t want to be married and wanted his marriage license back.”

She told him he would have to visit the next office where they handle divorces and annulments.

The contract of marriage is not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously and with the realization of its obligations and responsibilities.

For the most part, marrying couples is a joy for Lear.

“I don’t want to judge their reasons for coming here to get married,” said Lear, 40, a divorcee who lives in Santa Ana. “It’s up to them, but I want to make each ceremony personal and special even though it’s done at the counter.”

Although many just want a quick ceremony, “there are some that look at each other with tears in their eyes, and I know this is going to be a good one.” On the other hand, “some couples show up in sunglasses, shorts and flip-flops and chew gum.”

Do you promise to love and comfort, honor and keep each other in sickness and health, prosperity and adversity, and be faithful to one another as long as you both shall live?

The greatest number get hitched on Friday because they don’t have to be back at work until Monday. Lear said most couples come alone, but some bring flowers, friends and their families, and make videos of the ceremony. Some brides are pregnant and don’t want a big ceremony in front of people.

“Whatever reasons they come in here is up to them. I just want to make it personal and special for them,” she said.

Once a bride came in her wedding gown. “The couple had saved for a big wedding, but gave the money to his mother to attend a funeral on the East Coast,” Lear said. “That stays in my mind.”

Now that you are joined in marriage, may you strive all your lives to meet this commitment with the same love and devotion that you now possess. I now pronounce you husband and wife.

Mr. D., as William Dunton, 60, of Fullerton is affectionately known at La Habra High School, is planning to call it a career in June after 31 years at the campus as a music teacher and currently as head of the fine arts department.

On his retirement, someone is going to have to care for his coatrack, which is covered with, as he put it, “the most god-awful ties you can imagine.”

“Kids don’t like to wear them, and neither do I,” he said, but there are times when they are needed.

Occasionally students show up to play for a concert and aren’t wearing ties, “so I keep a few on hand for emergencies,” the veteran teacher said. “And in real emergencies I have another box filled with some more pretty-awful-looking ties.”

At year’s beginning, Albert Cass, 68, bought bicycling buddy Patricia Craig, 49, a combination speedometer and mileage indicator for her 10-speed bike. “She just loves bicycle riding,” he said.

Sure enough. During the year she would wake up at 4 a.m. to ride at least an hour before work as cashier at a fast-food restaurant. Then she would pedal 2 hours and more after work, plus to and from work.

“Every once in a while, she asks me if I’d like to take a little bike ride to San Diego,” said Cass, who lives in Costa Mesa. He bikes, but not that much. “My friends call her Super Woman.”

That description is clearly correct. Craig, also of Costa Mesa, has put 9,970 miles on the speedometer since the start of 1988.