Even though the streets of Lower Manhattan were overwhelmed by law enforcement, groups of protesters, and a plethora of satellite trucks and nervous media, there was a little peace and an aura of love inside the city clerk’s office, in the neighboring building. at the Trump trial. Civil wedding ceremonies were always held within walking distance of where Trump’s first criminal case was reaching its conclusion.
Couples just had to make their way inside.
Chamberlain, 44, and Pengelly, 45, said they came from the Midlands, United Kingdom, to escape to New York after being together for 17 years and raising three children. They were supposed to get married in the Big Apple in 2020, but the pandemic derailed their plans at the time.
“It’s absolutely chaos,” Pengelly kept saying as she stood on the sidewalk. “Everything is stopped. It’s absolutely chaos. The two men looped for several blocks due to street closures. “That sounds like a lot of money spent on a lawsuit,” Pengelly joked.
Toni Cardenas, 66, said the day was “historic.”
“The jury won today. So here we are. Two important things are happening at the same time,” Cardenas said, turning to his fiancée, Marilyn Valdes, 64.
Another bride-to-be, Maya Kelley, 31, had to show police proof she had an appointment to get her marriage license so they would allow her to walk down the street to the courthouse . “They wanted to see different documentation. I might have chosen another day to do it if I had known about the trial,” she said.
Court proceedings have also delayed some couples from getting married due to increased traffic.
Yelitza Colon and Arbelys Alzatara-Pena jumped out of a taxi and rushed up the steps 15 minutes after their meeting time.
The guards inside quickly moved them through security. “I saw it about the trial,” Colon, 26, said. “But I really didn’t pay attention to it, because Trump is not someone I associate with at all.”
Colon and Alzatara-Pena, also 26, have only been dating for six months, after meeting at work at Wingstop, but Colon said it was love at first sight. The couple chose to get married on Wednesday because it was the only day Colon wasn’t working, and they wanted to get legally married before living together.
As the two men sat on green benches among a few dozen other couples waiting their turn to sign their marriage certificate, Colon’s mother rushed down the hall just in time to witness the ceremony which lasted less than five minutes in front of a judge.
Anna Gold and Sam Alcoff picked up their two children, Nina, 9, and Arthur, 13, from school so the children could see their parents. Finally to marry. Their wedding was postponed last month and their marriage license was set to expire soon, they said.
“We did not anticipate that this would be the same day that the Trump jury was deliberating, Alcoff, 45, joked. “It was a happy coincidence.
The couple have been together for almost 18 years, but decided to marry now so that Gold, 43, who was recently unemployed, could benefit from Alcoff’s health insurance.
“We have a very strong relationship. And we may have procrastinated a little bit on that,” Alcoff said.
Many people were all smiles, but some, mostly brides wearing high heels and dresses with long trains, left the courthouse frustrated by the street closures. “Can we just walk over there, our car is on the other side?” a bride said to a New York police officer standing behind a barricade on Center Street, where the criminal courthouse was located. “No. No one other than the media and litigants can come here. I’m sorry. Congratulations on your marriage though,” the officer replied.
A bride-to-be waiting to get her marriage license told the Washington Post that Wednesday was the only day she worked from home. She and her fiancé arranged to meet at 2 p.m. during her “lunch break.”
A groom, Sunny Kim, decided to marry his fiancée Shayna on her 30th birthday. “We thought the trial was over. We didn’t know this was still happening today,” Kim said.
Wedding photographer Taylor Heby tried to convince the couples she works with to get married in Brooklyn this week to avoid chaos. But one of his clients, a couple secretly eloping, drove two hours from Westchester, New York, because they wanted the experience of a Manhattan wedding.
“What concerns me most are the photos. I normally take photos in the park across the street,” Heby said. “For this couple, we’re going up to Central Park to be safe from all this madness.”
About 45 minutes after arriving at the courthouse, Chamberlain and Pengelly officially became husband and wife. The couple passed out while holding hands.
Pengelly has no regrets but wishes their timing was a little better. “We missed Robert De Niro yesterday,” he said, referring to the actor who a day earlier led a campaign event for President Biden outside the courthouse. “We were a little disappointed.”
washingtonpost
