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Couples wed, renew vows downtown Youngstown on Valentine's Day
Couples choose Valentine’s Day to say
By ROBERT CONNELLY
YOUNGSTOWN
Kevin Payne’s face glowed as his wife, Jacqueline, walked down the aisle Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 30 W. Front St. It was 10 years ago that the two married in a courthouse in southern India, and now they were having a ceremony two weeks after Jacqueline and her daughters officially had immigrated to the United States.
Their renewal of vows was one of two such services Valentine’s Day in addition to 14 weddings in the downtown church on the holiday. That’s the most the church has had for the walk-in wedding day in its three-year existence. Couples had to have their wedding license, identification and $50 cash, which was donated to the Good Shepherd Kitchen in Youngstown and Canfield Community Care Net.
“It raises a lot of money for the groups we’re supporting,” said the Rev. Susan Brown of Canfield United Methodist Church.
Pastor Brown and her husband, the Rev. Jerry Krueger, pastor of Trinity UMC, said they got to spend the holiday together marrying couples when most holidays they spend with their congregations.
“This is something that we get to do together,” Pastor Susan said.
Pastor Krueger said the couples varied from marrying with a large crowd to just the couple themselves throughout Saturday’s ceremonies. For the Paynes’ renewal, Kevin had a best man, and Jacqueline had her daughters as bridesmaids. Friends and family looked on in Trinity’s cozy Chapel of the Friendly Bells.
Richard Martin and Jennifer Gurney of Boardman also married Saturday. “After 10 years, we decided it was finally time to get married,” Martin said. “My son was the one that was pushing the issue.”
He said that later that day that they would be relaxing, and “it’s nice to be married.”
“People [who are] together for a long time ... so their kids or friends will ask, when are you getting married?’” Pastor Brown said of the Martin and Gurney wedding but
also other longtime couples who exchanged vows Saturday.
Pastor Krueger talked about one couple who no longer wanted the pressure of their April wedding. “They saw this in the paper like four days ago and said, ‘We’re getting married.’ ... People say there can be just so much anxiety,” with planning, he said.
After the service, the Paynes were going back to a residence to have a meet-and-greet and typical reception activities. “We all get to meet each other because they’ve never met,” Kevin said of his wife and daughters meeting his family.
Kevin, a native of Canfield, originally had traveled to Asia to hike the Himalayan Mountains. That was in 2003. “I went to India on a holiday and didn’t come back for eight years,” he joked.
They recalled meeting by accident. Kevin was staying in a room at a resort, the same room that Jacqueline and her first husband spent their honeymoon in. One of Jacqueline’s daughters, 4 at the time, struck up a conversation with Kevin. Jacqueline was there spreading the ashes of her deceased husband. A year later they married on Valentine’s Day.
“Our story is like a little fairy tale,” said Jacqueline. “We have passed on a very important message to our children. That marriage is a very sacred bond [and] that [it] is never too late to enjoy the beauty of authentic marriage.”