Our Wedding Day Part 1: Courthouse Wedding Ceremony

Mr and Mrs!

Sorry it's been almost two weeks since our wedding day, but we've been busy.  Honeymoons and relaxing at the house for a few days took priority over this giant blog post, sorry!!  I want to go through all of the details of our very special and perfect day so I'm going to focus on our day through our Courthouse Ceremony in this post and the rest of the day in a following post.  There are far too many details to include in one post, I'd put everyone to sleep!  I can also include specifics for the courthouse ceremony that could be helpful to others out there - something I couldn't find when doing my own research.

Friday, August 17, 2012 began at our regular morning wake up time of 7:00am.  I jumped in the shower, not washing my hair because it needed to be "one-day-dirty" for my hair stylist to work with it.  Stephen got up with me and played with the dogs.  After a quick breakfast I headed off to Mariemarie Salon to get my hair done.  Yes, I saw my fiancee on the morning of our wedding.  I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

My stylist was the only at the salon so we had the place to ourselves most of the morning.  I didn't bring anyone with me so it was very peaceful and relaxing.  I found myself taking a lot of very deep breaths while I thought about the rest of the day.  I left the flower I was going to wear in my hair at the house and luckily Stephen was able to bring it to me.  I have the best husband in the world.  I loved the way my hair turned out.  I was a loose, low bun with a braid for some added detail.  I left the front pretty loose, like I normally do because it felt much more like me than my hair style did on my hair trial back in July.  

When I pulled into my driveway our photographer, Jenn Hopkins, was pulling in at the same time.  I was so lucky to have her at the house while I finished getting ready, she definitely kept me relaxed.  She had us pose for some "getting ready" photos and taking that extra 10 or 15 seconds together was priceless.  These pictures are typically the ones you take with you mom and bridesmaids, but because I was home with Stephen, he helped me into my dress and we have some special moments captured together.  I can't wait to see them.  I've known Jenn for close to 12 years now and we were truly blessed to have her there with us capturing the pictures of our day.  I absolutely wouldn't have had it any other way.  We actually checked with her before we set our wedding date and she was the first to know Stephen was planning on proposing - we had to make sure we picked a weekend she wasn't already booked!

Once we were ready to go we said goodbye to the pups and headed out the door to the courthouse.  I have to say, driving yourself to get married to the man of your dreams with one of your favorite people in the backseat of the car was a pretty awesome way to start our day.  

This section, I'd like to call "What we learned about Courthouse Weddings"

We knew it was a first come first served situation at the DeKalb County Courthouse and we were ready.  We got there two hours early to sign in on sign in sheet, but there isn't one.  We met the judge who would be preforming the ceremonies and he said there was no where to sign in, he'd be taking care of it.  Note to others out there: get to the courthouse 45 minutes before they start taking couples, being there first didn't matter one bit.  

We had time to kill so we went outside to the old courthouse and took a bunch of pictures.  Taking these pictures really saved time AFTER the ceremony when we were tried.  We even had time to stop for some frozen yogurt before heading back into the waiting hallway.  

When we got back, around 12:30pm the hallway was PACKED with people.  Some were there for something else (a lot of people disappeared into a courtroom at once and we never saw them again) and there were about 10 couples there to get married.  Some had groups of people there with them, some were there on what could have been their lunch break.  It's a very small hallway, not much seating.  Our family really packed out the place.  The judge came out of his little room and asked all couples there to get married to bring him their marriage license.  Note to others: have this ready!  We got ours to the judge 4th, so we assumed we'd be 4th to get married.  You know what happens when you assume...

Before the judge started with the marriage ceremonies he asked if anyone there was there just to make it legal.  "No fuss, you have to get back to work, back to your kids, pay the parking meter."  Surprisingly, quite a few people raised their hands.  What happened next was something that I never thought in a million years actually happened.  I wish I had pictures of the faces of my family over the next 3 minutes.  It went like this:

Judge to couple #1 - Do you want to marry him?

Woman - Yes.

Judge - Do you want to marry her?

Man - Yes.

Judge - Great.  You're married. 

Then he signed the license and they were on their way.  THAT QUICK. I'm not joking.  You can't make that up.  He even preformed one of these quickie ceremonies in Spanish when he realized that they didn't speak English.  After each couple the rest of the crowd who was waiting in the hallway would cheer and then it was time for the next couple.  Amazing doesn't even come close to describing these hallway weddings.  Some of these people were a little dressed up while one couple was in shorts, flip-flops and he was wearing a baseball cap.  He didn't even take it off to get married!  There isn't a dress code for the courthouse - news to me.   I didn't want a lot of "ceremony" for our actual wedding, but getting married in the hallway of a courthouse is far from what I ever thought could actually happen.  I don't think my sister's jaw closed the entire time this was going on. 

Once the quickie weddings were over it was time to start calling the couples to the back room for their ceremonies.  I was thinking we'd be #4.  We were somewhere around #6 or #7, I don't remember, but getting there at 11:30am was pretty pointless except for the picture taking.  When we were finally called around 2:00 we headed back down a hallway to the tiniest room in the entire building.  No joke.  The picture below is when we were pronounced husband and wive.  I'm pretty sure this picture was taken in the opposite corner of the room from the judge.  It was small, I don't think all of our family was able to fit inside.  It will be fun to see the pictures from Jenn.  

The entire ceremony was about 3 minutes long.  I don't really remember a thing the judge said, Stephen doesn't either.  I was so caught up in the moment and was so happy to be standing there across from my best friend, the rest of the world sort of faded away.  We were ushered out of the room and the next couple was called.  That's it!  We took the family back to the old courthouse for pictures on the steps and then the two of us headed off with Jenn for pictures in a few other select locations around our neighborhood that mean something to us.  I don't have any pictures of this period, but I'm dying to see what Jenn captured.  We went to Grant Park to a gorgeous, stone amphitheater, to a Coca-Cola wall mural outside of our favorite Grant Park coffee shop and to Turner Field.

When Stephen and I agreed on a Courthouse Wedding I searched the web for a place where I could find information on how the day would go.  I didn't find anything helpful which is why we were soooo early for our wedding.  Here are some tips for a courthouse wedding in DeKalb County Georgia.

TIPS:

1. Get your marriage license sometime before your wedding day.  We went to the DeKalb Co Courthouse so we would be able to see where we needed to go on our wedding day so we wouldn't get lost.  It was comforting knowing where to park, etc.  You can get a marriage license in any county if you are getting married in GA, it doesn't have to be from the county where you will be married.
2. Arrive to the courthouse 45 min to an hour before 1:30pm when the weddings begin.  Getting there early doesn't mean you'll be first.  It may be different with other judges, but with our judge, he determined the order. 
3. At 1:30pm, have your marriage license ready to go for the judge!  He started exactly at 1:30.  One part of our government that wasn't running behind.
4. Dress how you are comfortable.  We weren't the only ones in a dress and suit, but we were the only ones with a photographer.  Do what makes you comfortable - anything goes.  Baseball caps included.  Ugh.  
5. If you plan to take pictures after your ceremony, don't hang around the new courthouse, head over to the old county courthouse, the pretty stone one, around to the opposite side of the building from the gazebo for your pictures.  There is NO crowd and plenty of space for a photographer to back up to get the full building in the shot.  It's MUCH nicer than the current building.  
6. Take MARTA if you don't want to deal with parking.  The parking garage is $6 and MARTA is just across the sidewalk from the courthouse.  
7. Relax.  Be happy about your decision to get married in a courthouse where it is free!  We aren't going to have pictures in a giant, cathedral like church for our wedding pictures - but that wasn't important to us.  

There you have it - our wedding ceremony.  The rest of the day was a whirl wind and I have so much to detail, I'll do a full "Reception Only" blog post.  While I don't remember the exact vows that I said at that moment in the teeny courthouse room, I know that Stephen and I vow to be with each other everyday for the rest of our lives.  We will be with each other in good times and in bad when we can laugh and to cry together.  I will raise our future children with my best friend.  

I'm the luckiest girl in the world.  

Wedding Planning - Post #16 - Our venue: DeKalb County Courthouse

Stephen and I are doing things a little out of the ordinary, if you haven't noticed from my 15 other posts about wedding planning.  We originally wanted to elope, but decided to keep the ceremony here in Atlanta and have a party that night with friends and family.  We were never big on a church ceremony so after a few short discussions we easily decided that the courthouse was for us.

We live in Fulton County, GA so we checked with their courthouse first.  For several reasons we decided against the Fulton County Courthouse.  First, and most importantly, they don't do private wedding ceremonies with judges.  I wanted nothing to do with a large group wedding ceremony with total strangers.  Negative.  Nine.  No thanks.  I've seen some of Fulton County's finest, Lord knows who would be in there with us.  Secondly, when we looked at parking around the courthouse, there wasn't much and the downtown streets can be complicated with parking rules.  Lastly, we wanted pictures on courthouse steps, the Fulton County Courthouse isn't very pretty.  So, next we went to DeKalb County, the closest county to us.  In DeKalb County private wedding ceremonies are held Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:30pm - 4:00pm.  It's a first come first served system, but we're okay with that.  The current DeKalb County Courthouse is pretty ugly, it looks like what I hate from 1970s architecture.  I have no idea if that's when it was built - but you get the idea, see below.

DeKalb County Courthouse, Decatur, GA

The good thing about the DeKalb County Courthouse, is that the old courthouse is just across the Square from the new courthouse.  Bonus, there is a gazebo in the middle of the two.  After we got our Marriage License at the courthouse we took a walk to take some pictures of the gazebo and the old courthouse to send to our photographer so she'd had an idea of the locations since she's based out of Jacksonville.  Sadly, this is what we found.

Construction around the gazebo

So sad, we can't get to the gazebo.  Doesn't look like work will be done in 3 weeks.  You can see the man in the white hat on the left side of the picture, he is shoulder deep in a trench.

Not only is the construction blocking us from getting to the gazebo, but the fence is really close to the old courthouse so we can't get any distance in our pictures if we're standing on the courthouse steps.  It's not the end of the world, but things aren't as perfect as I had imagined them to be.  Here is the Old DeKalb County Courthouse.

Those three pictures above are as far back as I can get in a photo from the stairs.  Pictures are definitely still do-able on the stairs and they will still be gorgeous, but we can't do the long distance picture that I wanted.  Maybe the construction will be done in time.... maybe.

Old DeKalb County Courthouse.  You can see the fence to the left of the sidewalk.

While we can't take picture at the gazebo right now, we found City Hall not too far from the two courthouses and it can be another location for our photos with our family.

I love the red brick of the building and the dark wood doors.  If I can't have a gazebo, I'll take some red brick.  We'll take our family pictures around the courthouse at these locations and then Stephen and I will take some time with our photographer to some of our favorite places around our area of Atlanta - Grant Park, Turner Field and the Highlands.

The Marriage License process in DaKalb County was really easy.  The forms you need to fill out are online so you can do them in advance.  The ladies behind the counter the we dealt with were friendly, happy and very helpful with all of our questions.