thedrifter
02-15-07, 08:17 AM
Marines tie the knot on Valentine's Day
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
Forget the flowers. Forget the candy. Valentine's Day at the county clerk's office takes a full commitment.
Hold the chocolates and break out the "I do's."
"He picked this day," 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Lisa McManmon said, moments after becoming Mrs. Lance Cpl. Edward Chapman Wednesday. The couple had a five-minute ceremony behind a brown door adorned with a red Cupid carrying a heart at the county clerk's office in San Marcos.
"It's so he won't forget my anniversary and he only has to buy me one present," Lisa Chapman said mischievously, drawing laughter from her 32-year-old husband, his mother and father, and nondenominational minister and a deputy county commissioner, Lauren Michele Seals.
The Marines were one of more than 100 people who chose to run to county offices and tie the knot for the ultimate Valentine's Day affair.
County officials said that people generally flood the clerk's offices on Valentine's Day -- "the most romantic day of the year."
On Valentine's Day 2006, the county held 132 wedding ceremonies at their five county clerk's offices.
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, county spokesman Luis Monteagudo said, the county had performed 110 weddings, including 23 at the San Marcos office on East Carmel Street, and that they hoped to reach 150 ceremonies by the end of the day at 6 p.m.
Edward and Lisa Chapman, meanwhile, said Wednesday that their decision to hold a Valentine's Day wedding hosted by the county was born out of planning and impetuosity.
The couple said they met in October, and had decided by January that they wanted to marry on Valentine's Day.
However, when they finally decided about two weeks ago to arrange a ceremony, they found it difficult to reach their chaplain at Camp Pendleton.
Around the same time, the couple stole away from the base on a lunch hour in the hope that the county clerk's San Marcos office could quickly issue them a wedding license.
They said county employees were very helpful: "They dropped everything -- we told him we had to leave in 15 minutes -- and he dropped everything and tried to get us our marriage license," Edward Chapman said.
Edward Chapman said they couldn't get the license that day. But they learned that they could actually get married at the county office, and a plan was born.
County officials, meanwhile, said their wedding business -- which is not limited to Valentine's Day -- has picked up dramatically over the last several years.
Officials said that in 2000, the county performed 6,743 weddings, including 129 on Valentine's Day. In 2006, the county performed 11,155 weddings, including 132 on Valentine's Day.
Couples could choose from four different wedding "packages" that ranged from $11 -- which included the ceremony, one photograph, a commemorative pen and a "Just Married" bumper sticker -- to $31 -- which included the ceremony, the photo, the pen, the bumper sticker, a video of the ceremony and a keepsake.
The Chapmans, meanwhile, said they planned to cap their wedding day with a "dress and tux" photo shoot at the beach in Carmel, and a four-hour reception at Pendleton.
Edward Chapman said he and his wife hoped they might be able to take some military leave together, catch a military hop to Hawaii, and eventually, honeymoon in Oahu.
"It's a romantic holiday," Lisa Chapman said of her 2007 Valentine's Day. "Well, it's not really a holiday ... (but) it will be now."
-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
Forget the flowers. Forget the candy. Valentine's Day at the county clerk's office takes a full commitment.
Hold the chocolates and break out the "I do's."
"He picked this day," 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Lisa McManmon said, moments after becoming Mrs. Lance Cpl. Edward Chapman Wednesday. The couple had a five-minute ceremony behind a brown door adorned with a red Cupid carrying a heart at the county clerk's office in San Marcos.
"It's so he won't forget my anniversary and he only has to buy me one present," Lisa Chapman said mischievously, drawing laughter from her 32-year-old husband, his mother and father, and nondenominational minister and a deputy county commissioner, Lauren Michele Seals.
The Marines were one of more than 100 people who chose to run to county offices and tie the knot for the ultimate Valentine's Day affair.
County officials said that people generally flood the clerk's offices on Valentine's Day -- "the most romantic day of the year."
On Valentine's Day 2006, the county held 132 wedding ceremonies at their five county clerk's offices.
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, county spokesman Luis Monteagudo said, the county had performed 110 weddings, including 23 at the San Marcos office on East Carmel Street, and that they hoped to reach 150 ceremonies by the end of the day at 6 p.m.
Edward and Lisa Chapman, meanwhile, said Wednesday that their decision to hold a Valentine's Day wedding hosted by the county was born out of planning and impetuosity.
The couple said they met in October, and had decided by January that they wanted to marry on Valentine's Day.
However, when they finally decided about two weeks ago to arrange a ceremony, they found it difficult to reach their chaplain at Camp Pendleton.
Around the same time, the couple stole away from the base on a lunch hour in the hope that the county clerk's San Marcos office could quickly issue them a wedding license.
They said county employees were very helpful: "They dropped everything -- we told him we had to leave in 15 minutes -- and he dropped everything and tried to get us our marriage license," Edward Chapman said.
Edward Chapman said they couldn't get the license that day. But they learned that they could actually get married at the county office, and a plan was born.
County officials, meanwhile, said their wedding business -- which is not limited to Valentine's Day -- has picked up dramatically over the last several years.
Officials said that in 2000, the county performed 6,743 weddings, including 129 on Valentine's Day. In 2006, the county performed 11,155 weddings, including 132 on Valentine's Day.
Couples could choose from four different wedding "packages" that ranged from $11 -- which included the ceremony, one photograph, a commemorative pen and a "Just Married" bumper sticker -- to $31 -- which included the ceremony, the photo, the pen, the bumper sticker, a video of the ceremony and a keepsake.
The Chapmans, meanwhile, said they planned to cap their wedding day with a "dress and tux" photo shoot at the beach in Carmel, and a four-hour reception at Pendleton.
Edward Chapman said he and his wife hoped they might be able to take some military leave together, catch a military hop to Hawaii, and eventually, honeymoon in Oahu.
"It's a romantic holiday," Lisa Chapman said of her 2007 Valentine's Day. "Well, it's not really a holiday ... (but) it will be now."
-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.
Ellie