The Wedding Bells Of Borough Hall

When Luz Mariana was growing up in Colombia, she never dreamed that shed one day stand before a justice of the peace in Queens, New York, and marry a man from Egypt, 13 years her junior.
Mariana isnt bothered by the age difference. Nor does she care a whit that her new husband, Ahmed Hassan, is a devout Muslim, while she is a church-going Catholic.
Luz and Ahmed, you see, are in love.
"He takes care of me and he is very loving, and most important, he respects me very much," said Mariana, emerging from her wedding at Queens Borough Hall, wearing a lacey, white-on-white gown, faux pearl and gold jewelry, and an authentically blissful smile.
"We will always remember this day, we will always remember standing in this place," said the groom Hassan.
This place is vouchsafed in the memory of thousands of Queens residents, and others from across the City, who line up in the dingy offices at the rear of Borough Hall and then wait on rows of yellow plastic chairs to be married in a tiny chapel.
They come in gowns and tuxes, or jeans and sneakers to this makeshift chapel thats part Las Vegas, part Kew Gardens. They are native New Yorkers and wide-eyed immigrants from hundreds of lands. Some are peach-faced kids who require a note from their parents, while others are getting married for the second or third time, convinced they have finally found the love of their life.
"I really wanted to get to know him first," Maria Bermudez said of her beau of nine years as she removed a label from the sleeve of his white wedding suit. Bermudez daughter Natalie Fernandez, herself a bride of eight years, said she understands her mothers caution.
"We have to be patient, you guys are hard to understand," she said. "I guess we women are too."
Presiding over the Borough Hall wedding ceremonies for the past 17 years has been Dora Young, a deputy City clerk, who is also, coincidentally, second-in-command to Tom Manton as head of the local Democratic Party.
"Lets go, lets go, dont you want to get married today?" she asks a couple dawdling outside the chapel. "Im ready if you are." She marries an average of 80 couples a day, more on Fridays as newlyweds anticipate a weekend honeymoon. On Valentines Day, at least 150 couples step up to the altar.
Youngs work is apparently never done. Even in the nine days after Sept. 11, when many of the Citys computer systems were on the fritz, Queens was the only Borough Hall open for civil marriage ceremonies.
"It was one after the other on those days," Young recalled. On the rare occasions when couples want a longer service she jokes, "It only costs you 25 dollars for this, if you want more it will cost 200."
Young estimates that she has joined more than 10,000 couples during her nearly two decades on the job. During that time, she can remember only two occasions when the planned wedding went sour.
"One time, when I asked if anyone had a reason why this couple shouldnt be joined together, the bride herself raised her hand," recalled the impish Young. "I asked her why and the bride pointed to the groom and said cuz hes no good."
Most of the married couples are between 20-25 years old, Young estimated. About 20% are over 40, and only a handful under 18 or over 60, she said.
Since the attack on the World Trade Center, Young has noticed a new urgency among many of the couples coming in to be married.
"A lot of the young people seem to be more serious," she said. "The smiles on their faces somehow arent as big."
Not in the case of Elena and Saverio Brattoli, who couldnt stop smiling after being married at Borough Hall with a flock of family members as witnesses. "Hes cool and he really loves my sister," said Elenas nine-year-old brother A.J. Castro. "And he loves baseball."
Victor Urrea, an immigrant from Colombia is so enamored of his Brazilian bride Samarina Pereira, that he is considering taking her last name after the wedding.
Is his bride planning to reciprocate and take Urreas name as her own? "No way," she said, with the certainty of a wife. "I dont like his last name."
Meanwhile, the marriage of Luz Mariana and Ahmed Hassan was so inspiring that their bridesmaid Linda Trujillo vowed to follow suit.
"Next month, I am getting married too and you will come and take my picture," the spunky Trujillo said to a reporter.
"But first I have to go out and find a boyfriend."