In a pandemic, couples on Long Island get creatively hitched

Curbside marriage license applications. Drive-thru weddings. Vows renewed over FaceTime.

The coronavirus pandemic may have brought the global economy to a halt. But in Long Island town governments, the business of getting hitched continues.

Municipal clerks across the Island are taking unusual steps to help couples unite in matrimony, despite a public health crisis requiring everyone to stay as far from everyone else as possible.

Some clerks even report increased demand for marriage licenses and ceremonies since the outbreak began, driven by the closure of marriage bureaus elsewhere and the difficult circumstances COVID-19 has created for many.

“Ninety-five percent of the requests I was getting when this all hit was marriage licenses,” Oyster Bay Town Clerk Richard LaMarca said. “It’s an emotional time for these people.”

LaMarca is officiating ceremonies outside, at a safe distance from the almost-spouses.

“I stand probably 20 feet or more from the couple,” he said.

The Town of Babylon is taking a fast-casual approach, according to Town Clerk Gerry Compitello.

“Ceremonies are being done like a drive-thru Vegas chapel,” she said. “The car pulls up, we verify the couple and marry them while they stay in their car.”

Marriage licenses and ceremonies are among many routine workings of government complicated by the outbreak, as officials grapple with duties that usually require face-to-face contact. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo alleviated the problem somewhat two weeks ago, when he issued an executive order allowing New Yorkers to obtain marriage licenses remotely and clerks to preside over weddings via video conferences.

“There's now no excuse when the question comes up,” Cuomo said.

The Town of Hempstead is one place embracing digital nuptials.

Town Clerk Kate Murray is officiating weddings via video conferencing applications FaceTime and Zoom. The approach, she said, offers more flexibility than customary proceedings.

“I had one couple that were basically in their sweats,” she said. “My next couple, she had a beautiful gown on.”

Issuing marriage licenses presents its own complexities, said the clerks, who must inspect applicants’ documents first.

In Hempstead, couples now pull up to Town Hall and hand their papers out their car window to a staffer, who brings them inside for processing and, if all is in order, returns with the license.

“It’s sort of curbside service,” Murray said.

Some seeking wedlock cited closed marriage bureaus in their hometowns, clerks said. New York City, East Hampton and Glen Cove have not been issuing marriage licenses.

Others’ motivations were more somber, the clerks reported: the newly unemployed seeking to join their partner’s health insurance plan; medical workers wishing to formalize relationships before assignments in emergency rooms.

For still others, weddings offered a temporary reprieve from the dreariness of life under lockdown.

Valerie DiStefano and Michael Kampfer of Wantagh were married Thursday on a Zoom video conference call with Murray and dozens of family and friends watching from afar. Their dog, Cash, wore a bow tie for the occasion.

The experience offered “a little normalcy, even though this wasn’t very normal,” Kampfer said after.

“We didn’t want a really traditional Long Island wedding anyway.”