If you're feeling impetuous and want to get married on 12-12-12, Regina Alcomendras has some advice for you:
Get down to the county clerk’s office now, lest you miss the big moment in the stampede. The Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder says demand is so high that they are holding a group wedding at 4:30 p.m. to accommodate all the couples banging on the door.
“So far, it’s 84 and still climbing,” said Alcomendras, the clerk-recorder. “It’s the last chance in this century.”
Her office typically marries 17 couples a day. The building’s chapel, plus a conference room that her staff decorates, is usually plenty of room.
But a month ago, Alcomendras got an inkling that Wednesday was going to be a big day. That’s when both the chapel and the conference room booked up.
They flipped into group wedding mode.
Now they are up to 50 couples who are scheduled to wed in the Board of Supervisors Chambers at 4:30 p.m. Twenty-four other couples had individual ceremonies.
“We are still receiving phone calls,” Alcomendras said at noon. It's a phenomenom repeated across the country, news outlets are reporting.
Couples can still get married Wednesday, she said, “but don’t wait too long.”
She advises couples to come to the Clerk-Recorder’s Office in the County Government Center by 3:30 p.m. so that the marriage license form can be filled out and processed.
“The form itself is not long, but there are usually people in front of you, and that takes time,” she said.
Couples need :
- Completed marriage license application (on computers at the clerk-recorder's office)
- Government-issued identification
- Fee of $79 for the license (cash or check, fee applies to debit card)
- Fee of $80 for the ceremony (cash or check, fee applies to debit card)
Complete details are on the “Applying for a Marriage License” page of the Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder’s office.
The rush to the clerk’s office has been a phenomenon each year for some time now, she said.
“Oh, 8-8-08 was so popular, I think that’s when we started the group weddings. And then it just caught on.”
There was 9-9-09. Then 10-10-10 and 11-11-11 for the binary-numeral inclined (in Silicon Valley, not hard to imagine).
But this, she said, will be the last. At least in her lifetime. She’s going to enjoy it, she said.
The Santa Clara County Clerk Recorder’s Office is located in the Santa Clara County Government Center, 70 W. Hedding Street, East Wing San Jose.
