Taughannock Falls is one of those local places that is amazing and many people aren’t even aware of. Rachel wasn’t until I took her for the first time years ago but now it’s one of our favorite spots. That’s why we spent the day there by ourselves for our 2nd anniversary.
I never dreamed of being a Minister or a Reverand.
Still, I happened across The Universal Life Church the other day and found out you can be ordained from them for free. So I did it. Why not?
I recognize that this probably means absolutely nothing but it’s still fun.
I did a little digging and found that according to Section 11 of the New York State Domestic Relations Law the following list of people are authorized to officiate a wedding ceremony in New York State:
Various government officials;
a member of the clergy or minister who has been officially ordained and granted authority to perform marriage ceremonies from a governing church body in accordance with the rules and regulations of the church body;
a member of the clergy or minister who is not authorized by a governing Church body but who has been chosen by a spiritual group to preside over their spiritual affairs;
other officiants as specified by Section 11 of the Domestic Relations Law.
The person performing the ceremony must be registered with the City of New York in order to perform a ceremony within the New York City limits. The officiant does not have to be a resident of New York State.
Ship captains are not authorized to perform marriage ceremonies in New York State.
Looking a bit further, Also in Section 11 I found:
The term “clergyman” or “minister” when used in this article, shall
include those defined in section two of the religious corporations law.
The word “magistrate, ” when so used, includes any person referred to in
the second or third subdivision.
This doesn’t quite cut it yet so I looked a little further into Section 2 of the Religious Corporations Law and found:
The term “clergyman” and the term “minister” include a duly authorized
pastor, rector, priest, rabbi, and a person having authority from, or in
accordance with, the rules and regulations of the governing
ecclesiastical body of the denomination or order, if any, to which the
church belongs, or otherwise from the church or synagogue to preside
over and direct the spiritual affairs of the church or synagogue.
Honestly I think that pretty much sums it up and means that as long as the Universal Life Church Monastery believes you to be ordained as a clergyman of their church (which they do as soon as you register), you can perform a wedding in New York State. Note that the articles of law I found do not list any documentation you must provide, that is likely up to the individual county clerk. Just for fun I’m going to look into it for Monroe County. If whatever I need to get from ULCM doesn’t cost much, I might just do it.
Then again, I have no idea what I’m talking about and I’m using Google as a Law Book.
DISCLAIMER: Please do not take my word for it. If you decide to pursue this method of marriage, clear it with your county clerk first.
So there you have it.
Reverend Randy Aldrich is now available for all your wedding ceremonial needs.
My niece sings karaoke every Friday at the VFW in Newark NY. She’s been doing it for a while now.
Friday night Rachel and I went out to see for ourselves and I’m proud to say she has quite the voice. She started with some Evanescence, then rocked out to some Sublime and No Doubt and a few others. All of which she nailed with the exception of some song she didn’t know and thus fumbled through with her friend.
The karaoke at the VFW was a much better setup than I expected. The patrons even more so. There were a few people that essentially owned the karaoke machine. Then there were a few others which subjected us all to throaty renditions of Wonderwall and off key versions of Living on a Prayer.
Overall an extremely fun and entertaining evening.
Rachel’s Brother George lives in Portland Oregon and he’s getting married in July (the 11th to be exact). Since we’ll be trekking all the way across the country for the big event we’re planning on making a vacation of it. We’ll be staying in the Pacific Northwest for 3 weeks. The rough itinerary is Portland for about a week, Glacier National Park for about a week, Seattle for a few days and then back to Portland to fly home. Beyond that we have no idea.
We’re trying to plan as little as possible and just wing it but we’ve put together a tentative map of the route we might take and the places we want to see.
We don’t want to plan our trip but we do want ideas. We’ve never been to the west coast or the pacific northwest and we need to know the cool stuff to do or see. If you have been to this part of the country, please let us know what places you enjoyed (and those you didn’t) so we can add it to our list!
A while ago I became pretty interested in Genealogy. I started searching around and talking to relatives. I’ve found out a lot of interesting things but probably the most interesting came from somewhere unexpected. The Mormons are apparently very into this stuff and keep track of it all. They have a website filled with genealogy records.
Although I can’t verify it (Yet!) It seems I may be a descendent of King Edward II. If you’re not sure who King Edward II was perhaps his father King Edward I (nicknamed LongShanks) might be more recognizable.
Yes the very same King Edward I from Braveheart. Apparently I have evil blood flowing through my veins. The same blood which killed William Wallace.
I’m Sorry 😦
Merry Christmas!
We’ve done Christmas a little bit different this year.
Sorry, we can’t give it away just yet though…
By this time everyone should have heard our request for memories for grandma. Everyone wants to know what our gift was, and so rather than describe it, we thought we’d just show you.
To explain it, this is the card we gave her:
It was 1991, the year of the ice storm. Your house was one of the few which still had power. Mom dropped us off to spend the day with you. To keep us busy, you pulled out a few empty gallons of milk which we decorated and filled with warm water. You called them our “Hug Jugs.” When we got cold you told us to hug them to stay warm.
It is said that memories are one of life’s greatest gifts. They are like little hugs from the past that come to warm our hearts. This is Grandma’s Hug Jug. Inside, you’ll find cards which contain memories or pictures from your family and friends. Some contain thoughts of all the times you have made us laugh, others contain memories of how you have helped us to be strong or how you have touched the lives of those who love you.
When you feel the need for a warm hug or a few giggles reach in and pull out a memory or a picture from the past.
And finally, if you’d like to read over some of the memories people have, they’re all available below:
Thanks for everybody’s help who contributed, we couldn’t have done it without you!
If you’re part of the Masten/Kerber family you’ve probably already seen this note from Rachel but duplicating it here just means more people might see it.
We have something special planned for Grandma this Christmas and we need your help. We are looking for memories that you have of Grandma. It can be a funny memory, a special way she has touched your life, copies of old pictures, reasons why you love and appreciate her or anything you think she will enjoy and cherish. In order for us to complete this project we need to have 10 or more memories from each person in your family. This is much easier than it sounds. Once we started thinking the memories just kept coming and coming.
While this task definitely deserves some attention, some people might be stressing about it. Don’t over think this task as it can be as easy as reminiscing on the old days. We thought we’d throw up some ideas to get you started.
As a more specific example:
Obviously your memories don’t have to be limited to this list, but hopefully it’ll get you thinking and give you some ideas.
Remember, Christmas is just around the corner and we can’t finish this little project without your help!
Thanks for the birthday card
But I’m a little confused as to how you were able to fill in your paw prints and get it in the mail without the card getting shredded. Maybe now you won’t shred MY mail? Wishful thinking I suppose.
You must have had help, I just wish I could say thanks to whoever it was.
Wegmans just opened a new store in Henrietta NY replacing one of their oldest remaining stores. My Mother-in-Law Karen is the Floral manager and has worked at the Henrietta store for over 30 years. naturally the local news wanted to know what she had to say about the new store.
For those of you who don’t know what wegmans is it’s a grocery store. It’s a grocery store that people will drive hours to get to. It’s a grocery store that’s privately owned. It’s a grocery store that college kids hang out in at 4am. It’s a grocery store that’s a small European market in one building. I could go on, because I have worked there just like most Rochestarians. In fact I met my wife there. It’s a community staple.
So you can see that it actually is a big deal when they open a new store in the area and close an old one.
RIP Store #21.
He is, I swear.
It’s not every day you get to witness the creation of a new dance move. Beyhold…George is bringing sexy back:
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Randy Aldrich 