Manhattan Marriage Bureau

The Manhattan Marriage Bureau is a set of offices located in the Manhattan Municipal Building near City Hall in lower Manhattan. It is the site of more marriages than any other venue in the United States.

Since 1930 over 1.2 million people have been wed at the Marriage Bureau. Between 2000 and 2007 an average of 58 couples a day were married here.^[1] In 2007, more than 16,000 couples wedded at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani often performed weddings at the Marriage Bureau in person.

New venue

In 2008 Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the Bureau would soon move to new quarters in order to provide a more dignified setting for the marriages of New Yorkers, and in the hope of attracting couples who might otherwise travel to Las Vegas to be married to travel instead to Manhattan, boosting New York's tourist industry.^[2]

The new Marriage Bureau opened on January 12, 2009 in an 1920's Art Deco building on the ground floor at 141 Worth Street (corner of Centre Street and Worth Street) that was formerly occupied by a Department of Motor Vehicles office. The space of 24,000 square feet (2,200 m²) was decorated by interior designer Jamie Drake who decorated Gracie Mansion and Mayor Bloomberg's private residence. The project cost is $12 million.

The facilities contain two separate wedding chapels off the building’s central rotunda. In the east chapel, the sofa and walls feature apricot and peach colors; the west chapel is done in purple and lavender. Each chapel has an abstract painting that matches the walls and hangs next to the lectern from where the clerk performs the ceremonies.

A marriage license in New York costs $35, and the fee to have the wedding performed at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau is $25. These fees can be now be paid by credit card.

Fictional Marriage Bureau weddings

Michael Patrick Flaherty the character played by Michael J. Fox on the American sitcom Spin City is married at the Marriage Bureau.

References

1. ^ Santos, Fernanda (October 4, 2008). "Drab Setting, but Joyous Work: Making 2 Into 1". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/nyregion/05marriage.html. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
2. ^ Santos, Fernanda (January 7, 2009). "Eloping to Vegas? Why Not Lower Manhattan?". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/nyregion/08marriage.html. Retrieved 2010-08-23.