Marco and Sandra along with their two-year-old baby were traveling through the western US on vacation. Her parents joined them on the trip as well.

They decided they wanted to get married and have their wedding ceremony on Santa Monica Beach. Their first stop was a few days before at my office in Long Beach to get their marriage license. Then today we met again at the foot of the Santa Monica pier and ventured out to one of the lifeguard towers. Since it was Monday the beach was relatively empty so we have the whole area to ourselves.

Their English wasn’t very good so I spoke slowly and they repeated 1 to 3 words at a time. When it was time for the rings they wanted their daughter to hand them to them.

She had other plans, as two year olds usually do. She wanted to keep the ring and when they took it away from her she broke down in tears.

So thinking quickly I scoured the area in front of me and noticed a bobby pin playing on the ground. I fashioned it into ring and handed it to her. She stopped crying and was so excited that she had her ring that she showed it off to everyone. We were then able to continue the ceremony. At the end her mother read something to them in German. I pronounced them a couple and they gave each other the biggest kiss.


They said Danka Schoen (thank you) and I said  Auf Wiedersehen (good bye).

The Germans, Their Baby, The Beach and the Bobby Pin Ring