Far left, Robb Green, the "Marrying Mayor," and best man JeanPaul Kabeya, far right, look on as bride and groom Gail Kruger and Abdoulaye Mahaman share their first kiss as a married couple. This was the 2,500th wedding Green officiated.
(THE EVENING SUN -- CLARE BECKER)
It was a simple ceremony, just how the bride and groom wanted.
On a Saturday afternoon, friends and family gathered at the chapel in Homewood at Plum Creek, where the bride works.
At the front of the altar, they stood -- she, with red flowers in her hands and he, in a red tie to match the color scheme.
And standing just behind them, right between the soon-to-be married couple, was a man with thinning white hair in a dark suit.
"We must give ourselves in love, but we must not give ourselves away," the man said, uttering words he's used before -- 2,499 times.
It was an occasion, special not only to the marrying Hanover couple, Gail Kruger and Abdoulaye Mahaman, but also to the man pronouncing them husband and wife -- the
Former Jefferson Mayor Robb Green adjusts the train of bride Gail Kruger's dress during Saturday's ceremony. Green has been performing weddings since 1996.
(THE EVENING SUN -- CLARE BECKER)
Marrying Mayor.It was the 2,500th wedding Robb Green, the former mayor of Jefferson, was officiating.
Since 1996, when a couple he knew asked him to marry them, Green has been officiating weddings. There's no advertising, the 65-year-old said. It's all been word-of-mouth. And by now, reputation, which is how Kruger, formerly of Jefferson, contacted him for her wedding.
But it's what he's become known by. So much so, that on a Saturday afternoon in the lobby of a retirement center, before he was about to officiate a wedding, a woman approached him and mentioned that Green married her son at Lake Marburg.
Green paused, as if trying to remember, and then recalled how the couple actually wanted the designated "wedding spot" at Codorus State Park but it had already been taken.
But that's how Green remembers the weddings: by location. Like the one in a Paradise Township junkyard. Then there was the one done on Christmas Eve in an open field. And of course, the wedding that was performed on top of a Ferris wheel at the Jefferson Carnival.
"I never remember the names," Green said. "But I do always remember the places."
He's cut back on the number of weddings he's performed since he stopped being mayor in 2010, but
Former Jefferson Mayor Robb Green pauses during the ceremony to listen to the wedding singer during Saturday's ceremony at Homewood at Plum Creek. In 2011, Green did 114 weddings.
(THE EVENING SUN -- CLARE BECKER)
he hasn't retired entirely. In 2011, he did 114 weddings. And he'll keep going, he said."As long as I'm physically able to perform," he added.
There's something special about officiating each wedding, said Green, who was married by a mayor himself.
"You try to make each day special," Green said.
But now, at this wedding on a winter afternoon, it was time for him to say the phrase -- the words that always bring applause and cheer.
"Abdoulaye, you may kiss the bride," Green said.
The milestone was reached. Number 2,500 was done.
But there was little time to celebrate. At 5 p.m., Green would be performing wedding 2,501 in York. And besides, he was already looking toward 3,000.
"I'm just one of those guys who keep on ticking," he said. "There is no end."
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
To contact Robb Green for a wedding, call (717) 880-4524.
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_19701225?source=rss_viewed
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