5/5/03

One wedding please, room for cream

    COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) - At the Rev. Al Holm’s drive-through espresso place, you can get a latte, a mocha or a husband. Cheri Henderson chose the last, marrying Bryan Myers in a five-minute ceremony.
    “Well, wham bam,” Henderson, 35, said after the recent wedding, witnessed by a waitress and some customers of Holm’s Sacred Grounds caffeine-and-commitment emporium.
    Sacred Grounds occupies a former pizza counter in the back of the A-n-D Mini Mart, located on a busy street a block from Interstate 90. Holm is ordained in the First Christian Church, but the counter of Sacred Grounds is his only pulpit. He is 67 and a retired police chaplain and drug counselor in the Coeur d’Alene area.
    “I can’t sit home and watch ‘Oprah,’ so I decided to open an espresso stand,” Holm said. Last month, his wife suggested he also offer weddings. “I laughed, but we talked about it and said, ‘Why not?’ ” Holm said.
    Like a lot of states, Idaho requires only a wedding license for a legal marriage. No waiting period. No blood test. Cheri and Bryan, on vacation from Whitehall, Mich., were the first to go through the marriage grinder at Sacred Grounds. They stood in front of the drive-up window. Cheri held a small bouquet of flowers she’d picked up on the way over. They did not have wedding rings. Holm read the Apostle Paul on the subject of love, and asked each of the couple if they would take the other as a lawfully wedded spouse. Then, by the authority of the state of Idaho, he pronounced them husband and wife, and the couple kissed. It was the first wedding for both.
    There are some kinks to work out in the ceremony. Other coffee patrons had to wait for their orders while Veronica Ramage, 20, served as a witness.

— Associated Press, 5-5-03

Seven Signs You’re Being Married At An Espresso Counter

7. Lots of “grounds for divorce” jokes

6. “If anyone objects to the union of these two people, let him speak now or forever hold his double decaf latte.”

5. Sporks tapped on sides of styrofoam cups a non-verbal call to kiss new husband

4. Barista’s Toast really touching

3. Honeymooning on old, leather couch by the chess board

2. Get marriage license punched 5 times, 6th wedding free

And the number one sign you were married at an Espresso counter:

1. “I now pronounce you really jumpy”

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