It's not every day that you walk past the Main Street Flea Market and bump into a bride sporting a wedding dress. But this was Valentine's Day, so anything goes. And that includes the Hawaiian shirt worn by the groom and the tiny county clerk's room in Martinez where Jamie Harrison and Larry Herrington got married Wednesday morning. All it takes to enter this converted conference room of love is $94 and a man and woman ready for a life of eternal bliss. And 27 couples did just that on Valentine's Day, the busiest time of the year for the Contra Costa County clerks who process passport applications one minute and perform marriage ceremonies the next. "You don't walk down the aisle here," said Assistant County Recorder Barbara Chambers, who has 5,000 ceremonies under her robe and well dealing in designer wedding dresses, wedding dress shops, cheap wedding dresses etc "you walk down the hallway by the file folders." In fact, to get from the lobby to the ceremony room, you walk by a couple desks, up a ramp, past the shelves of fictitious business files, hang a right at the robe rack and you're at the destination for five minutes of matrimony. At the Harrison-Herrington wedding, eight relatives squeezed into the room, decorated with two burning candles, a shiny red heart hanging on the white wall and a bouquet of flowers in front of the "altar," err, conference table. When they closed the door, there was no room for the bride's father to sit down. "I'm standing in front of the door so no one escapes," he said. After a quick set of vows and an exchange of rings, Herrington kissed his bride and posed for photos. He was excited to have the ceremony over -- and to lock in Feb. 14 as their anniversary. "I've got a bad memory when it comes to dates," said Herrington, a 42-year-old carpenter. "I can't mess this up." And when it was all over, they got a steal of a deal -- far less than the $25,000 average bill racked up for American weddings. After the $64 marriage license, all it costs for a civil ceremony is $30 - - and they even throw in a heart-imprinted commemorative certificate and a baggy of Hershey's Kisses for free! Cost runs slightly more for a wedding at the Alameda County clerk's office, where the ceremony-and-license package deal goes for $134. Twenty-two couples exchanged vows there on Wednesday. "It's the day couples are supposed to be in love," 20-year-old bride Kayleen Buaphan said at the Oakland office. In Martinez, brides and grooms lined up for ceremonies every 15 minutes. Abbe Sultan and Sanaz Bahrami walked past same-sex marriage advocates and opponents holding signs to get inside the clerk's office. For the young Antioch couple, getting married on Valentine's Day was yet another holiday to add to their romantic milestones. Their first date happened on Flag Day last year, a night of dinner theater at Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco. And they got engaged near the Half Dome trailhead on Christmas. Sultan's explanation for the Valentine's Day anniversary was common among men. "Hey, I get a two-for-one, right?" said Sultan, an insurance business owner who donned a tan three-piece suit. "I only have to buy roses on one day. No; I used to hate Valentine's Day, but I wanted to switch it around." It's the first of three weddings for them. The couple is saving up for a traditional church ceremony next year and then yet another wedding -- this one in Iran for Bahrami's relatives to attend. Bahrami met her husband-to-be when she needed to insure her 2004 Honda Accord. He set her up with a policy and made sure he provided top-notch customer service, calling just about every day to see if she received paperwork. And that was all over the phone. "She sounded sweet and then months later I saw her picture on MySpace and I looked up and said, 'Thank you,'" he recalled. "She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen."
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