Mayra Hernandez and Armando Lopez have known that when they get married, they want the moment for themselves.
“It’s our choice,” Hernandez said. “It’s very special, and it’s very intimate. We’ll celebrate with our family and friends afterwards.”
On Friday, the couple, who have been together for about four years, joined others at the Lake County Clerk’s Office for a courthouse wedding. The day is popular for weddings because it was Friday the 13th and the last day for a courthouse wedding before Valentine’s Day.
“Part of the reason why we picked today is because (13) is her lucky number,” Lopez said. “And it’s the day before Valentine’s Day, so why not?”
Hernandez and Lopez have wanted to get married since the beginning of the year, and they also decided to on Friday because they didn’t think it’d be busy.
“And we thought, ‘Nobody wants to get married on Friday the 13th,’ but here we are waiting in line,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez and Lopez said the clerk’s office was “very welcoming.”
The clerk’s office also had a giveaway for couples who were married on Friday, with prizes including dinner packages, roses and concert tickets. Following their short ceremony with a judge, couples enter the giveaway.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, hotels were also part of the giveaway, Clerk Mike Brown said, and he’s hoping that starts again.
“Couples will get married today, and they’ll have a chance to celebrate and say, ‘Look what we did,’” Brown said. “Hopefully, that marriage will stay together because that’s what the ceremony is all about: two people coming together for a lifetime.”
Brown said the clerk’s office expected to see between 10 and 20 couples get married on Friday. Couples don’t have to register ahead of time, so the office wouldn’t know the exact number.
Seeing the couples who got married was “a great feeling,” Brown said, and it’s meaningful for his staff to be part of the ceremonies.
“Love is the greatest healer,” he said. “Seeing two people unite in love is beautiful. No matter what their backgrounds are or how they came together, just the fact that they chose to be together and unite, that means a lot to our staff.”
Layla Lazaroff and Ted Trulley were another couple who wed at the Lake County Government Center on Friday. The pair, who have been together for about a year, both were married before in traditional weddings.
“This is for us, and this is just about us,” Lazaroff said. “It’s intimate, and we’ll do something later with our close family. … It was beautiful. There were no distractions, and it was just about us today.”
Trulley is a numbers guy, he said, so that’s why they picked Friday as the day to wed. The couple didn’t know about the clerk’s office giveaway.
“Two times 13 is 26, so I thought that was kind of cool,” Trulley said. “Honestly, I just wanted to come in and get married today.”
