By Kaitlin Merkel
Murphy News
County judges married 22 Minneapolis-area couples free of charge at the Hennepin County Government Center’s reflection pool Friday on Valentine’s Eve to commemorate the holiday.
This was the third year the county judges offered free marriage ceremonies to couples as a way to “give a little back,” Judge William Koch said in a prepared statement. “As a bench, we wanted to help celebrate the holiday in a unique way and to help people easily remember their anniversaries in the future.”
Couples offered a variety of reasons for choosing to get married Valentine’s weekend.
Emily Granroth and Radcliffe Ashworth III, of Coon Rapids, said they’re currently remodeling their house and saw this as an opportunity to save money.
“She said, ‘What do you think? It’s free,’ and I said ‘We can afford that,’” Ashworth said.
Granroth and Ashworth had been engaged for some time, but decided to get married a week and a half prior to Friday’s ceremony.
The couple, who met at work, also liked the “spontaneity” of the event, which Granroth called “romantic,” and planned to celebrate their marriage with a party at home later on.
Nichole Ehlers and Tayo Adefuye also decided to get married a week and a half ago. The couple met on Myspace eight years ago, stayed friends and started dating a year and a half ago.
Ehlers and Adefuye celebrated their “spur of the moment” wedding day by staying at the Grand Hotel in Minneapolis and hosted a luncheon after the ceremony at Rare Steak & Sushi.
Denise Peterson and Brian Miller, of Golden Valley, meanwhile, were celebrating their marriage a second time.
“We had a destination wedding in Mexico, but it was just a symbolic ceremony so we knew had to come back to the United States and make it legal,” Peterson said.
The couple, who met at a corporate event at the St. Paul Yacht Club, were heading their separate ways directly following the service. Miller was heading out for a beer while Peterson headed back to finish out the workday.
“I literally am on my lunch hour,” Peterson said, “so I’m going back to work.”
The ceremonies took place during the noon hour and opened with a musical performance of “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” by Judge Ivy Bernhardson with Judge Laurie Miller playing piano.
After saying “I do,” all 22 couples were presented with a gold dollar coin by their officiating county judge, which they threw into the reflection pool together.
Judge Bruce Manning married two couples during the celebration and said he enjoyed seeing the “loving” couples and the atmosphere in the building. “It’s much more festive in here [than normal],” he said.
Kaitlin Merkel is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.