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Love is in the air: Collin County schedules 30 nuptials on 12.12.12
Kelsey Kruzich / Staff Photo - Anton Jackson and Amanda Clasen of McKinney shared their second kiss as a married couple at the Collin County Administration Building on Wednesday. The Justice of the Peace married 27 couples on 12.12.12, a date this generation will never see again.
By Kelley Chambers, kchambers@starlocalnews.com, @KelleyChambers7 on Twitter
Michael Hood and Susan Benton of Anna were together 10 years before officially taking the leap and getting married on Wednesday.
The parents of three boys said it was "love at first sight," despite their past several attempts to say their vows falling through for one reason or another. On Wednesday, however, the smiles on their faces proved different.
"We almost got married on the Fourth of July two years ago and everything went bad," Benton said. "It feels good today. So far, everything's cooking."
This year is the last year anyone can take advantage of a clever numerical wedding date because unlike the past 11 years, Wednesday was the last such triple date for almost a century - until Jan. 1, 2101, to be exact.
With approximately 31 marriages on his docket, Justice of the Peace Judge Paul Raleeh said Wednesday beat out the typical days when his services are needed the most, including Feb. 14 and any other numerical lineups.
"In my 14 years sitting here, this [was] by far the busiest wedding request day yet," Raleeh said. "We began scheduling a few months back, and finally we had to move everything off the Wednesday docket to [Tuesday] and Thursday to make room."
Couples, family and friends filed in and out of Raleeh's chambers from 10 a.m. until almost 4 p.m. While many dressed for the occasion, others opted for a more casual approach to take advantage of the convenience.
Joyce Pleasant of Plano clutched her bouquet with her fiancé, Vernon Jenkins, as they waited patiently for their turn. The couple waited five years to say their I do's, but said they knew their special day would need to have an equally special date.
"Actually, we said either we're going to get married on 8-8-8, 9-9-9, 10-10-10 or 11-11-11, and said if we don't do it on 12-12-12 we're never going to be able to do it," Pleasant said.
Jenkins proposed to Pleasant over the summer after he found out the significance of Dec. 12 of this year. After that, as Jenkins said, "we'll just follow the road."
The two have a special love story, as Pleasant hired Jenkins to complete a plumbing job while she was doing construction on her house. Never wanting to mix business with pleasure, Jenkins said he waited until the work was over before pursuing her.
"He made the first move because he'd call me every six months to see if I needed something done to my house," Pleasant said. "He's got drive, he's very motivated."
Jenkins summed up his motivation for marrying at the courthouse on Wednesday by referencing a now-famous Hollywood analogy.
"Look at the Kardashians - they spent all those millions of dollars and it only lasted 72 days," he said.
Like the Jenkins and most of the couples who married on Wednesday, Amanda Clasen and Anton Jackson of McKinney also took advantage of the date not only for memory's sake, but also as a opportunity to have a non-traditional wedding devoid of stress and, most of all, exorbitant costs.
Clasen joined her husband-to-be on Wednesday wearing a white, formal dress, her glow matching her luminous hair and makeup. Surrounded by family and friends, Clasen said this day was long overdue, and having the nuptials in this manner was a helpful way to get over her cold feet.
"We thought it would be really cool to get married today because of 12-12-12," she said. "I've always been a little bit hesitant about getting married, so my philosophy was, 'it's now or never.' We'll never see this type of a day again, so we decided to take advantage of it and go ahead and do it today."
While Raleeh said the only challenges he and his staff had was accommodating his schedule and continuing the same level of enthusiasm with the last couple as he did with the first, the day proved to be both a smooth and joyous one for everyone involved.
"It was a fun day," Raleeh said. "This is the best part of my entire job, being able to marry people. We usually only get four or five a week, so it was good to step off my bench and do something nice like that. It's kind of like renewing my own vows with my wife."
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