BUFFALO, N.Y. — The COVID-19 pandemic was a tough time for couples looking to tie the knot. Weddings were canceled or put off, and getting a marriage license got a lot more complicated.
As long as Buffalo has been around, however, City Hall has been the spot serving up love.
“That's a lot of marriages,” Jesse Harlach said.
And on a sunny October day, Jesse Harlach and Samantha Chmura just happened to be next in line.
“It's like a deli counter. Now serving 1703,” Harlach joked.
“1703. That’s us,” Chmura added.
Post-pandemic, there’s been a feast. The city issued 2,196 marriage licenses in 2022, which was more than any point in over 30 years.
“It's like everybody is making up for lost time,” soon-to-be married Jesse Harlach said.
In 2023, that record is again in sight, much to City of Buffalo deputy clerk Milly Castro's delight.
“We were surprised last year and we're even more surprised this year,” Castro said.
With two months to go, the number from the city clerk’s office reads right around 1,913 customers and counting. Although compared to the year 1913, back in Buffalo's heyday, it’s nothing.
Each license from that generation is preserved on film, even a well-known ball player who you might have heard of. Tyrus Cobb got married to his first wife Frances Cass in Buffalo.
But for more modern times marriage is booming in Buffalo.
“For 25 licenses in one day that's pretty high,” Milly Castro said.
Marriage can be trying, not unlike the pandemic. For both, in the end love was in order.
“I had no idea that there was that increase in marriages downtown,” said Harlach, one half of the happy couple you heard about earlier.
So as Harlach, Chmura and nearly two thousand other couples start their new lives, know that Buffalo is ready no matter the number.
This story will be updated when the final count of marriage licenses for 2023 is available.