On Demand
Destination: Marriage Bureau
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Las Vegas has Elvis, who should marry couples in New York? Mayor Bloomberg wants to redecorate the Manhattan Marriage Bureau to rival Las Vegas as a hip placed to get hitched. Listeners call in with design suggestions.
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There should be an All You Need is Love room where you get married by John Leno and Yoko.
classic broadway sets!
I don't know about interior design, but the building as a whole should be shaped like a giant heart!
I think a Woody Allen impersonator would be good.
What about a simple turn-styles?
Would really like to see something with Coney Island, Little Italy, Empire State building based on the city.
The Design should be comprised of clean airy rooms with bunk beds for homeless mothers and children who have to sleep in shelters and shlep across the City with their personal belongings on a daily basis.
this is a fantastic idea.
there are numerous photo backdrops all over the place, why not in the process?
once again, Mayor Mike proves himself to be the best we've ever had.
a Trump impersonator would be great.
"YER MARRIED"
It's obvious: Recreate the New York, New York hotel setting. Nice and meta.
Bravo Alistair that IS perfect. I can just see and hear it.
What about getting married by Broadway characters?
Elephaba from Wicked or the Wizard of Oz?
The Phantom of the Opera could officiate?
IF MAYOR BLOOMBERG WANTS TO GET MARRIED IN CITY HALL, HE SHOULDN'T BE IMPOSING HIS KITSCH TASTE ON THE REST OF US : )
Liza Minelli or Woody Allen as choices for the Justice of the Peace. Definiately a disco ball.
I got married at City Hall. My husband played the wedding march on his cell phone. I like it the way it is. Everyone I know who got married at City Hall was married by the same monotone, uninterested Hispanic woman. She must marry hundreds of people each day. She was as bored as a NYC Transit worker. I thought it was a perfect NYC wedding.
Why not do it at really historic sites? I would love to get married in the torch of the statue of liberty. How about the empire state building, or the brooklyn bridge?
Hmmm...I have a suggestion:
USE THE MONEY THAT WOULD BE WASTED ON THIS NONSENSE FOR LOWER INCOME/AFFORDABLE HOUSING!!!
I love the historic theme room idea a caller mentioned.
I would love to get married by Boss Tweed or have a prohabition theme wedding with disguised booze and Mayor Jimmy Walker officiating.
Sorry, I love New York, but you can't beat Vegas for a kitschy wedding. I was married in Vegas and it was so fun. And, to top it off, my mom won a $42,000 slot jackpot the day after. That's something you can do down at city hall.
Will gay marriages be allowed?
The rooms and JOPs should be based on the traditional neighborhoods - Chinatown officiated by Budda, Little Italy officiatede by a "Don," SoHo officiateded by arty guy, Brooklyn officiated by a baseball player, etc
The officiant should be an Ed Koch impersonator!
Hi about being married by Brian Lehrer?
I'd love that!
Vika
We'd renew our vows to Rudy in Drag! (Impersonator acceptable)
Wedding should take place in an elevator which descends rapidly during the vows, coming to a stop just as the groom says "I do" so that he feels the sensation of additional weight.
A "Don" in Little Italy?! That is very offensive, very very offensive.
I think New York should take a different tack than Las Vegas. Some people don't like kitsch and see marriage as a sacrament if religious, or as a public statement of commitment. Why not create a well maintained public space? Public buildings of the 20s were beautiful spaces. The New York Marriage Bureau should settle for a clean public building with proper bathrooms, but promote the benefits of an affordable wedding. Many couples with children don't get married because they think weddings should be expensive gatherings. Clean, affordable, and easy. That should be New York, instead of spectacle.
They should get a Fiorello LaGuardia impersonator to marry the couple, and then a guy in a King Kong costume could steal the bride...
I agree with Alistair. I also got married at City Hall and loved every minute of it. It was perfect. It's both very private and public. And there is no graffiti on the walls. People who are getting married write their names on the walls and it's so great to see all the names. Don't change a thing!
The Mets probably have some free time. They can take turns officiating.
I think Brian should do the weddings. He's one of my favorite New York personalities.
I was married there - loved all of the idiosyncratic bureaucratic processes - wouldn't change much - loved the elevators - perhaps a room with floor to ceiling windows to show the backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Wedding dress from Loehmann's: $100
Marriage License: $40 (I think)
Bouquet:$6 worth of yellow roses from a Korean deli
Being married at 1 Center St in April, 2002 and becoming a NY Times VOWS couple: PRICELESS!!
how about a Bob Shepard impersonator?
every group waits together and its a very unique NY experience
Location, location, location
What about a kiosk in Central Park? I was married in the park (at some expense) and it was magical.
Travis Bickle
Ratso Rizzo
We don't need no stinkin' Elvis! Las Vegas needs those gimmicks precisely because it's in the middle of the desert it's the antithesis of New York. The less like Las Vegas we make it, the wilder the success will be. Just make the window bigger, so that Statue of Liberty view can really shine.
My husband and I are the second generation in my family to be married at City Hall (in 1996, after my folks in 1950). We rode the subway their and home with our parents and party of friends, and had a party in our (then)favorite Brooklyn eatery. Our friends still talk about it as the best wedding ever.
We thought the ceremony itself would be analogous to renewing a driver's license - but we were wrong. Thanks to Mary P. Snow, who officiated, for making the ceremony genuinely moving and intimate.
We were married in Chicago, and the ceremony was a bit different--held in a courtroom, before a judge who wasn't happy about being their. Before the "ceremony" we heard him ask his clerk back in chambers: "Why do I have to do this? It's late. This is my getaway day." (It was on Thursday, not Friday, so he took an early getaway.)
We exchanged vows in a regular, empty, courtroom; although, the judge stood beside, not behind, his bench.
Incidentally, it was our second marriage to each other, with no divorce between. The first came in Scotland, and we "remarried" in Chicago to convince my wife's mother that we really were married, that I wasn't just a "horny old geazer" (her words) after her daughter. And we were married a third time--still no divorce--this time in the College William and Mary chapel in Williamsburg, Virginia, in front of many of my friends and family. I'm from Virginia, a long ago ancestor was the first president of W & M, I attended many years a go, and one of my sons and his wife graduated from there.
So, New York isn't the only boring place to get married. No matter where, it's not where you marry (in our case, how many times) but how you care for and love each other afterwards.
I'm a former radio disc jockey and TV reporter, anchor, and producer; and I enjoy your show.
Mike Wright
Why limit it to the municipal building? How about wedding centers at picturesque/famous sites all over the city?
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