Monday, September 24, 2007

A new side to New York!

WANT to make your next trip to New York unforgettable? It’s this simple: Elope.

Although it is not an idea likely to please parents who want to see decades of labor come to fruition as their child walks down the aisle, an extralong weekend in New York is perfect for getting hitched, thanks to the bargain-basement services of the Office of the City Clerk.

New York requires a 24-hour waiting (sobering-up?) period between getting a marriage license and marrying. So you can snag your license on Friday afternoon ($35) and marry on Monday morning ($25), leaving a weekend in between to frolic around the city.

Here’s the formula: X (amount you would have spent on wedding had you not eloped*) - $60 = Y (amount you can spend in New York over the weekend).

[* Presupposes access to said amount.]

The idea comes not from the devious imagination of a bachelor columnist, but from friends of a friend.

Two weekends ago, Ken Steen and Katja Heitkaemper arrived in New York from Berlin, frustrated in their efforts to pull off a formal wedding in Germany.

“This is about us,” Mr. Steen, a 36-year-old disc jockey and music producer, recalled thinking. “We should enjoy this. Let’s go somewhere we can take a memory home.”

They flew in their best man and maid of honor and their toddler, Anton, but didn’t tell their families.

Here’s how they did it.

THE MARRIAGE Marriage Central in Manhattan is in the Municipal Building (1 Centre Street, second floor). The details can be found online at www.nycmarriagebureau.com, but people still manage to mess it up.

For the license part on Friday, both of you must get there well before 3:45 p.m., when the office closes. And you need identification, and a $35 money order. (When you forget your money order, you can go the photo lab at the Duane Reade pharmacy two blocks down Chambers Street at Broadway.)

Gay couples can’t apply for a marriage license, although they can register a domestic partnership for $36. There is no apparent reason it costs a dollar more.

When Mr. Steen and Ms. Heitkaemper arrived on Monday around lunchtime, the officiant was nowhere to be seen, and at least a dozen couples were left waiting. A spokesman for the city clerk said that the wait was unusual and that there was no official break for lunch.

This time, you need a $25 money order and two witnesses, preferably ones who will not object when asked if anyone knows any reason you two should not be married. (They need IDs, too, a requirement Mr. Steen’s best man was able to get out of.)

Don’t expect romance. Or a sermon. The group was in and out of the chapel in less than two minutes. “You need more time at the counter in the airport,” Ms. Heitkaemper said.

THE RINGS Even if you’re from a diamond-engagement-ring-shunning culture like Germany’s — “We only know about that from American TV series,” Mr. Steen said — you’ll still need wedding bands. And a walk down 47th Street between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, the Diamond District, will provide you with dozens of options. Mr. Steen and Ms. Heitkaemper found what they were looking for at Prince Jewelry, one of the sellers at 20 West 47th.

THE FUN The choices of what to do during your weekend are, of course, endless. You could go the romantic route, and plan the weekend around a trip to see “La Traviata” (on two consecutive Saturdays in November at the Metropolitan Opera). Or take in Cirque du Soleil’s latest production, “Wintuk,” at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden from Nov. 1 to Jan. 6.

Our German visitors opted for some shopping, including picking up a belt with a silver star for $17 on Canal Street (which Mr. Steen wore to the wedding with an all-black outfit). But a potentially highly useful prenuptial trip is a visit to the Museum of Sex (233 Fifth Avenue, www.museumofsex.com). One exhibition, “Kink,” catalogs in visual and tactile detail an astonishing number of fetishes and behaviors you (perhaps) never imagined.

THE HOTEL Where to stay? It’s up to your budget, but a Sunday night at the Brooklyn Marriott (333 Adams Street, www.brooklynmarriott.com; doubles from $229) allows you a Monday morning stroll down one glorious aisle: the pedestrian walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge. (The Municipal Building is at the other end.) The night before, you can wander the Brooklyn Promenade for what is the clichéd-but-worth-it most romantic view of the city.

POST-KNOT You’ll need a place to eat lunch after, preferably within walking distance of the ceremony. One choice, for those wishing to keep with the bureaucratic theme, is the restaurant City Hall (131 Duane Street, www.cityhallnewyork.com), an elegant spot in a 19th-century landmark building that serves steaks, salads and a burger that’s 20 percent brisket meat.

Consider spending the night at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park (2 West Street, www.ritzcarlton.com), in a $900 suite with views of both the city and the Statue of Liberty. If you look at it one way, that’s very expensive. If you look at it another way, that’ll get you about half a wedding cake.