SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st
She said...
James and I bought a 1990 Mazda Miata. It was kind of a spur-of-the moment purchase. We registered it in both of our names. Then we started to look for insurance. We found out that insurance is cheaper if you are married. We pondered for a moment if we should try to save the $100.00 by sacrificing our newly-found freedom (HA!).
He said...
We used the insurance money Kim received from when her LeBaron was totalled.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22nd
She said...
I received my weekly E-Mail indicating the cheap international airfares for the upcoming weekend and, for the first time since I started receiving these E-mails, there was one leaving from Washington, D.C. (They are usually from Miami, New York, Chicago, etc.) It was to Puerto Rico (PR). I called James and told him of the flight. He said he wanted to go. Then he added, "let's get married while we're there." I said, "ok." I was hoping that that wasn't the official proposal. I called the local Puerto Rican tourism office to find out what is involved with getting married in Puerto Rico. After several calls, James was able to speak with the only person that knew the regulations for getting married in PR. She sent a 16 page fax on how to get married in PR. It turned out to be more complicated than we expected. In the meantime, I called the Arlington County Courthouse to find out what we'd have to do to get married there. The answer basically is: show up, bring an ID (and divorce papers, if you have some), pay $30.00 for a license and pay another $30.00 if you want to be married there. Nice and Easy! I suggested that we get married at the Arlington County Courthouse and take a mini-honeymoon to Puerto Rico. But James wanted the whole Puerto Rican wedding experience, so we started the process.
He said...
I thought it would have been really uninteresting just to go into an Arlington courthouse. I wanted excitement, mystery.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23rd
The first important thing was we had to have a blood test done. It could be done in the states or in Puerto Rico. If it is done in the states, the results have to be certified by a Puerto Rican doctor (the tourism office recommends Dr. Rappaport to certify results in San Juan).
Most states do not require the (VD) blood test as VD is easily treatable. I'm not really sure if it came back positive it they'd say "Sorry, can't get married, you've got VD."
We decided that we'd do it in the states. I called the Arlington Hospital Lab. They told me that I'd have to have doctor's orders to get blood work done. So I called the Social Security Health Center in the building where I work. They suggested that I call a local laboratory, which I did. The local lab said we could get the tests done there but it would take a couple of days to get the results. We didn't have a couple of days to spare. They said that they just take blood, then it has to be sent to their main laboratory to perform the tests. I asked where the main lab was and they said Chantilly, VA and gave me the phone number there. I called the Chantilly headquarters of the American Medical Laboratory and talked with a nice girl named Tammie. She said that we could get the blood test done there and have the results in the same day. I asked her for all of the details - where they are, how much it costs, when we could schedule an appointment. She answered all of my questions.
When we got back, we sent Tammie a t-shirt from Puerto Rico to thank her.
When it seemed like it was really possible to get married there, I called the airline to make our flight reservations. After the reservations were made, the agent told me that she would Federal Express the tickets to my home and they would arrive the following day. I told her that no one would be home and asked her to send them to my office. She said that she couldn't. I asked if it was possible to fly ticket-less. She said "yes," but I couldn't charge both tickets on my credit card if we were flying ticket-less because James and I have different last names.
I called area hospitals. I was told you need orders FAXed from a doctor to have blood drawn. Then it would take from 2 to 3 days for the results.
So I called James and we conference called the agent to change his ticket to his credit card and re-do mine on my credit card. That was finally resolved.
James stayed up late looking up Bed and Breakfasts (B&Bs) on the Internet. He wanted to pick a nice one near the beach in San Juan.
I found quite a few B&Bs. I even passed up a vegetarian one out in the west of the island. Try Bed and Breakfast.com for your own searches.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th
We arrived at the lab in Chantilly at 7:30am when they opened and had our blood drawn. We were told the results would be available that afternoon. Tammie said she'd pick them up for us and give them to the night security guard so that we wouldn't have to get back to the lab before it closed at 5pm. James drove me to my office after our blood was drawn. On the way there, he said, "so, you're sure you want to spend the rest of your life with me?" I said, "yup." Again, I wondered if that was supposed to be a proposal.
We discussed which B&B to stay at and called one to make a reservation. We spoke with a very nice and knowledgeable woman, Alexandra. We told her that we were coming to Puerto Rico to be married and that we'd have to see a doctor to certify our blood test results. She said she knew of a doctor that was nearby. We told her that the tourism office recommended Dr. Rappaport, so maybe we should use him. She said that was the doctor she was talking about!
Dr. Rappaport must know some people or he's the only doctor in town.
That afternoon I called Tammie to see if the tests were completed. She said they were done and she'd put them in an envelope for us to pick up later that night.
By now I figured we were really going to do this.
We decided we'd be married in the Judicial Center, rather than have a church wedding. Marriages at the Judicial Center are free, while church weddings cost money! The wedding information sheet from the tourism office recommended that we call a judge to set up the ceremony. It recommended Judge Eddie Rios because he speaks English. The woman who answered the phone gave us another number to try. We called the other number and a guy answered the phone. We asked for Judge Rios. He said that he was out and to call back in 10 or 15 minutes. There was loud beach party music playing in the background. James and I thought Judge Rios was definitely at a margarita party! We didn't call back.
We went to pick up our lab results around 7pm that night. When we arrived at the lab, we were so excited to get the results that we hurried to the entrance of the building. The guard let us in. We asked for our results and he said he needed to see some ID from us before he'd give them to us. Who else would come in and ask for blood test results for Kim Cannon and James Wilkins? In our haste, we had both left our IDs in the car. James ran back outside and retrieved his. Finally we had the results and were on our way home.
We are both proud to say we are VD-free.
We were trying to decide how to notify people of our elopement. I thought we should send announcements, but I dreaded ordering them through a stationery place and I thought it would be awkward to return from getting married, then order announcements, then mail them out. It seemed like that would take a long time. We knew didn't have time to get them ordered before we went. Then I had an idea! What about if we made our own announcements and mailed them on Puerto Rican postcards while we were there?!
James liked this idea. He printed up some pretty announcement labels in lots of different fonts. Then we printed address labels for 65 friends and family members. All ready to go!
We didn't stick the stamps or labels on the postcards until we were sure everything was going through.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25th
We were leaving the next day, so we had to worry about packing, finding our passports (for ID since James didn't have his birth certificate, I didn't want to bring mine), divorce papers and keeping together all of the details, especially remembering all of the lab results, directions of the places we had to go, etc. We decided on what we'd wear to be married. I picked out a kind of lacy cream-colored spaghetti-strapped dress that I like and thought would be appropriate. I really wanted something new for the occasion, but I knew there was no time to shop. James decided on a black linen suit.
I called Dr. Rappaport to make an appointment to get our blood tests certified. The information sheet said I'd have to go to another office first to get the certification form, then take it to the doctor's office. Fortunately, the doctor's office told me that they had the forms there and I didn't have to make an appointment, we could just walk in, pay $25.00 and get our results certified. Sounded easy enough. We soon found out, nothing is as easy as it sounds!
After work on Thursday, we packed. James asked me to put on the dress I had selected to be married in. I tried in on and frowned. He asked what was wrong. I said I wish I had something new to wear. Then he went downstairs and returned with a shopping bag containing a new dress for me. He had gone out shopping to surprise me with a wedding dress. He looked all over for a cream one, but there were none to be found. So he bought me a very pretty black dress. I tried it on. It fit nicely and I loved it.
Actually, I did find a cream one at Ann Taylor, but I knew Kim would have killed me if I spent as much as it cost there.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26th
Our flight was at 7:30am out of Dulles. We had to get there by 6:30. We were rushing as usual. We had an uneventful flight. We arrived in San Juan around 11:00am and took a taxi to the bed and breakfast. Alexandra was there when we arrived. We dropped off our stuff and walked to Dr. Rappaport's office. When we entered the office, it was filled with people. There was one man promising to pay his bill as soon as the bank opened on Monday morning; another woman with a couple of small kids sitting quietly. We went to the receptionist's desk and stated that we were there to get blood results certified. The receptionist gave us new patient forms to fill out, even though this would be the only interaction we would ever have with this office. After completing the forms, we gave the results to the receptionist, along with the new patient forms. She looked them over, then asked if we had been married before. We both said "yes." She asked to see our divorce papers. Then she said that she would need to see my birth certificate because she needed something with my maiden name on it. I told her that I didn't bring my birth certificate. She thought that they couldn't certify my results without something with my maiden name on it. She told us to wait while she made a phone call. She called a local wedding consultant and asked her what to do. The wedding consultant asked me a few questions and then told me to tell the receptionist to complete all of the paperwork in my married name. She did that and we now had our blood test results certified.
It seems that the Puerto Rican government depends on the doctor's office to provide a first screening. What business does a doctor have with your divorce papers otherwise?
We left the doctor's office and hailed a taxi to take us to the Demographic Registry Office to get our marriage license. We arrived there at 12:50pm and it was closed for lunch until 1pm. We were waiting with a bunch of people that were trying to register birth certificates for their newborns. We thought we were in the wrong place, but eventually we learned that it was correct office.
We were able to get the license with no problem. Our taxi driver waited for us, so we had him take us to the Judicial Center to make an appointment with a judge to marry us the next day. During the taxi ride, we decided that if anyone else asks us if we were previously married, we'd say no. We were frustrated at nearly being "turned down" at the doctor's office and since we came all that way to be married, we wanted to do just that!
We made it to the Judicial Center in a few minutes and entered the front door. There were two guards with a metal detector. They asked why we were there. We said we wanted to be married. One guard asked to see our paperwork (lab results, doctor's certification and license).
This turned out to be a popular question over the first two days we were in P.R.
After his preliminary inspection, he said that he couldn't let James enter because he was wearing shorts. We must have looked disheartened because he said he'd take us in the back way. We walked down a hallway and then down a deserted back stairwell. We thought that was where he was going to beat us up and steal our money, but it never happened. We ended up at another desk with another guard and metal detector. This guy wasn't as nice. He said James must wait outside and I went in alone to make the appointment. The guard told me to go to the back of the room where there was a window and talk to the people there. I walked into a big room filled with Puerto Rico's criminal element, waiting for a hearing or trial or something. There was a bench at the front and many police officers in the back that kept passing papers under the window I was told to stand at. I put my papers on the ledge under the window and waited. Finally, some woman picked up my papers and looked at them. She handed them to a man. He looked them over, then said to me, "I don't think we can take these lab results because they are from the states."
I waited in that hallway for about two hours. I tried to sit down once, but the guard made me stand back up.
I explained that Dr. Rappaport had certified them. A young woman in a tight, short, purple dress walked over to him. He handed the papers to her and she walked off. A short time later another man came over and returned my papers to the first man and said, "esta bien." I thought, "great, it'll work!" The man asked me if I had been married before and I said "no," as James and I had agreed. He then handed me a form to fill out. I started to fill it out, then noticed that James had to sign it, too. I had already filled out the portions for name, address, previously married (where I checked "no"), then I was at the section that said bride's parents' names and I thought "OH MY GOD! I can't say that I wasn't married because my parents don't have the same last name." PANIC, PANIC, PANIC! I went out of the courtroom and found James waiting impatiently near the metal detector. He had watched people in handcuffs being escorted by police walk past him for an hour and was wondering if he'd ever see me again. I explained the new dilemma. We then decided to tell the truth. We completed the form and signed it. I went back in and handed the form in to the man. He looked it over, then said, "you have been married?" I said "yes." He said, "he has been married?" I said, "yes." He said, "does he have kids?" I said, "no." He said that he needed to see our divorce papers. I handed them over. He looked them over. Then he said he couldn't accept James' divorce papers because there wasn't a seal on it. I explained that they don't put seals on divorce papers in VA (where James was divorced); they only do it in Maryland (where I was divorced). He didn't seem to buy my lame explanation. He said he'd ask the judge if it was ok. He came back a while later and said "I'm sorry, we can't accept these papers."
I saw one van pull up and several officers in bullet-proof armor and big machine guns came out. Two guys in manacles and leg irons got out of the van and were lead back where Kim was.
I asked if I could please speak with the judge. A few minutes passed, then the second man from an hour before returned and said "esta bien" again. I thought "YEAH! They'll take his divorce papers." Not the case - he was saying it was ok, I could talk to the judge. I was led down a hallway and into a small room with a judge's bench and the young woman with the tight, short purple dress was sitting at it wearing a black judge's robe! I couldn't believe it! I showed her all of the documents I had and tried to convince her that this was the way divorce papers were. She didn't believe me. She pointed out on James' divorce papers where the clerk initialed near where there was a stamp that said "test copy." She said that it was not the original, it said test copy. I showed her the information that I received from the tourism office. It didn't help. I was reaching for straws, panicking again. I said, "well, I called Judge Eddie Rios' office." She cut me off, "you talked to Judge Rios?" I said, "I called his office and they said this would be ok." She said, "oh, I'll go talk to Judge Rios." I didn't think that would help me since I never talked with him. So I pulled out the letter from James' attorney which stated, "you are now free," etc., etc. She saw this letter and was immediately pacified: "this has an original signature, this is ok." So she took all of my papers and gave them to the first man that helped me. She told him to go ahead and make an appointment. He pulled out a huge ledger book, opened it to September 27th and wrote in the slot for 1:30pm Kimberly Cannon and James Wilkins.
An old woman was talked into giving up a baby she was holding for some reason. Everyone was talking way too fast for me to figure it out, but apparently she was supposed to surrender the child to the court.
He then wrote the same information down for me on an index card and gave it to me. He told me that I had to bring 2 witnesses and I told him that the information from the tourism office indicated that if I didn't have witnesses, let the Judicial Center know and they would provide some. I walked out of the courtroom over to James and proudly showed off that index card: the culmination of my struggle with people at the Judicial Center.
Later that night, as we ate dinner at a vegetarian restaurant on the beach. James asked if I had any concerns about getting married. I said, "just one. You haven't proposed." He told me that he was planning to propose during dessert. I waited. He proposed.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27th
I didn't sleep well that night. I worried that I wouldn't be able to find witnesses. We woke up early and had breakfast. Then we walked over to the beach and swam. It was a beautiful day. It was a beautiful day to get married. On our way back to the B&B, a man was selling flowers on the street. James said he'd buy me some, so I'd have a bouquet. We went back to the B&B and showered. James finished first, realized that he forgot his belt and brought the wrong pants - he had wool pants with a linen jacket and it was VERY warm. He went out to buy my flowers while I dried my hair with a borrowed hair dryer. He returned and told me that it was raining!
I thought he was joking. I saw sun streaming in the room through the blinds. He said that it was raining and still sunny. After we were ready, we had Alexandra take photos of us in the courtyard and call a taxi for us. In the taxi, I asked the driver if he'd be a witness. He said ok. He arrived at the Judicial Center at 1:25pm. We walked through the metal detector and the guard asked why we were there. I told him, "to get married." He said, "you need 2 witnesses." I said, "can you be one?" He said he couldn't because he was working. There was another man hanging around the metal detector and I said, "what about him?" The guard asked the other man if he'd be our witness. (I don't know the Spanish word for witness, so I wasn't much help.) And he said yes. So we all entered the courtroom. Then we waited. And waited. We were starting to feel guilty because it was taking soooo long and nothing was happening. A clerk typed up a form and put the witnesses' names on it. After an hour, the witnesses were called and we followed them into another small courtroom. We had coached the taxi driver in using the camcorder, so the event could be taped, but when we entered, the bailiff (?) said that we couldn't use camera in there.
The judge asked James why he was there. James said, "to get married." The judge said, "to whom?" James said, "Kimberly."
I thought maybe the judge didn't know why we were in court.
Judge: Who's that?
James pointed at me.
Judge (to me): Why are you here?
Me (trying to save time): To get married to James (while pointing at him).
Judge: Sign here.
James and I signed the paper.
Me (whispering to James): Is that it? Are we married?
James: I don't know.
Judge (to witnesses, in Spanish): Do you know any reason why these two shouldn't be married?
Carlos & Jose (the witnesses): No.
(Thanks, guys!)
Judge: My English no is good. I do ceremony in Spanish. Blah, blah, blah, something about compromising, blah, blah, blah. Do you James Grant take her, Kimberly Robin, to be your wife?
James: I do.
Judge: Do you Kimberly Robin take him, James Grant, to be your husband?
Me: I do.
Judge: I now pronounce you ...... Wife and husband.
James pulls out our rings to exchange.
Judge: Oh Yeah - those are important.
We exchange rings and kiss.
I think he actually said (incorrectly) Spanish was not his first language and therefore he would be performing the ceremony in Spanish.
The judge indicates that he wants to keep all of our papers, including our original divorce papers. I told him that we must have them back. He said he'd make a photocopy and that they'd type us up a marriage certificate. We thanked the stranger for being our witness and he left. We told the taxi driver that we wanted to go to Old San Juan and drink champagne. He stopped at several places along the way, ran out of the cab, then came back and said "no good." We finally figured out that he was trying to find a place with champagne.
He finally found one. We had champagne and dinner at a restaurant called Amadeus. Then I called my mom to tell her what we had done. Then we walked around, shopped, stopped at a bar and had two of the best piņa coladas ever. Later we took a cab back to our B&B and found that Alexandra had left us a huge bouquet of very colorful flowers and a bottle of champagne. Perfect end to a perfect day.
Someone took my credit card number from my restaurant receipt and made three long distance calls totaling over $150.
The rest of stay in San Juan we kept busy being newlyweds, horseback riding, swimming, shopping, touring the Bacardi rum factory (and, yes, drinking rum!) and eating great food.
The rum turned out to be cheaper in Mexico than it was at the Barcardi factory!
On the morning that we left I looked at the airline itineraries to see when our return flight was and noticed that I was charged $125.00 more for my ticket than James was. Big mistake. Difficult to correct.
The ending: we returned to Dulles at 10:30pm to a car with a dead battery. Had to get it jumped. Got home late. What an ordeal! At least we're happily married!
(i.e. We ran to the plane.)
(And we were able to obtain our cheaper auto insurance.)
(wah, wah wah)