THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150370
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Sixty-five couples descended a pair of shopping mall staircases in gown-and-tuxedo splendor Wednesday morning, and, in a corridor between Zap Electronics and Vera's Balloons, vowed to love one another forever. The mass Valentine's Day wedding procession managed to hold an air of grace and dignity that belied its drive-time broadcast over a country-music radio station, one of whose disc jockeys narrated the affair in a mixed-metaphor morning dress of tuxedo top, blue jeans and snakeskin cowboy boots.
Still, as 65 brides locked gazes with 65 grooms and vowed to love, honor and cherish, their eyes glistened and glowed no less than if the whole affair were being held in the grandest chapel in the land.
Just how does one come to be married in a crowd of strangers at a shopping mall at 7:30 on a Wednesday morning? There are 65 different answers.
``That's a very interesting story,'' said Dave McCorkle, a Virginia Beach parks and recreation worker. Nodding to his bride, Pam, he explained: ``We were married for 14 years, then we divorced this past summer.
``But we found we needed to be together again, and this was just the perfect setup for us.''
The McCorkles' sons, 14-year-old David and 12-year-old Danny, took snapshots as Mom and Dad remarried and gracefully danced a wedding waltz to a country-western tune.
``We were first married 14 years ago in Australia,'' Dave McCorkle said.
``It was 15 years ago,'' Pam said, interrupting him with a laugh. ``He forgets that kind of stuff.''
As her husband, tall and refined in his formal attire, ushered his freshly reknit family toward the rear of the corridor for the traditional wedding toast, he was asked if this go-round with Pam would prove as strong as the first.
``Better,'' he said, with an emphasis that left no doubt.
Most of the other couples looked much like the McCorkles, in finery and humor, although decidedly semiformal Stetson hats topped a few of the otherwise formal grooms. Many couples had children in tow, and a few showed signs that children would soon be in tow. Cupid, it seems, can be a little playful with a calendar.
This was the fourth year that Eagle 97 FM has foot the bill for a mass wedding. The affair has outgrown its previous venue, a banquet hall in Virginia Beach, said Kurt Etheridge, the station's marketing director. The Newmarket Fair Mall offered up its corridors, and a lot of merchants sweetened the pot. Couples got freebies or cut-rate deals on tuxedos, flowers, hairdos, rings and other necessities of the day.
There were four 20-pound cakes for the reception, and one couple would win a honeymoon trip to Jamaica.
Eighty-some couples had applied for the morning matrimony, Etheridge said. ``But we had to weed out the usual nut cases. One woman's divorce wasn't final yet. Another one, when we contacted her, said she had no intention whatsoever of marrying the guy who'd signed her up.''
When the couples had cleared the staircases and assembled before a stage and a booming set of radio-station amplifiers, morning deejays Jimmy Ray Dunn and Jay Francis read their names over the air. Sometimes there were cheers from the crowd.
Then, Ruby Trent, a state marriage commissioner from Chesapeake, led them through their vows. Marriage is a step, she cautioned, that is ``not to be entered into lightly or unwisely,'' but with reverence.
Despite the frivolity of the setting, all 65 couples seemed determined to take her at her word. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
65 newly married couples, above, dance to ``I Swear'' by John
Michael Montgomery on Wednesday at Newmarket Fair Mall.
Jennifer Amick of Hampton finishes her makeup with the aid of a
friend holding a mirror. She married Thomas Stefko, a Navy fireman
on board the submarine tender Emory S. Land.
by CNB