Our wedding ceremony was unique in that like many of us who got married on Okinawa we did not know what we were to do. My soon to be wife, her sister my best man and I went and picked up all the necessary paperwork and began to make the rounds of the various government offices that needed to process the paperwork.
We went from office to office and sat while our paperwork was checked , then stamped after which we were told to go to the next office. This process continued throughout the morning until we found ourselves at the Naha Mayors office at 11:30. Of course it being so close to lunch they told us to come back after lunch. We found a soba house right around the corner. We had a nice lunch which was made better by an ice cold beer.
As 1:00 o'clock approached my wife said she would go back to the mayors office with her sister and that my best man and I should finish our beers then join them. Just as we were leaving the soba house to join them my wife came in and said we needed to return to the American Embassy. When I asked why she replied that is what they told me at the mayors office. Fearing the worse we made off for the American Embassy.
When we arrived back at the embassy we were escorted into an office and told to wait there. A few minutes later a gentleman came in bowed to my wife and I and congratulated us. We asked for what and he smiled and said on our marriage. You could have knocked us over with a feather. We both asked when? where?
It seems when the mayors office stamped the paperwork for all intents and purposes we were married. So my memories of my wedding are sitting in a soba house finishing a cool beer with my best man. We have been together twenty two years now and have since renewed our vows twice. My wife is the best thing that has ever happened to me an d I thank the good lord everyday for her.
Got any more great stories about your Okinawa wedding let me know.