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Kentucky’s ‘Marrying Man’ a magistrate again

Kentucky’s ‘Marrying Man’ a magistrate again

Posted: Friday, January 6, 2012 7:24 am

By SCOTT WARTMAN
The Kentucky Enquirer
COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — After more than 20,000 weddings, “The Marrying Man” doesn’t have plans to quit.
Gov. Steve Beshear re-appointed Steve Hoffman as a magistrate in Kenton County, a position he held for 13 years from 1989 to 2002, during which he acquired the moniker, “The Marrying Man.” Since then, he became a minister in the nondenominational Universal Life Church and continued marrying couples.
A magistrate in Kentucky is the equivalent of a Justice of the Peace. In most counties, magistrates also serve on the fiscal court. In Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties, the fiscal courts have three commissioners, so magistrates mainly just have the power to marry people.
Hoffman, 53, of Coving-ton, will fill out the term of Linda Scully, who resigned, that lasts until the end of 2012. He will run for re-election next year.
“It all comes down to one thing when you’re doing a wedding,” Hoffman said. “You’re trying to make a couple of people’s dreams come true. By gosh, you’d better do it right.”
Hoffman has married people at Great American Ball Park, Roebling Suspension Bridge, on their death beds, on the way to hospitals while the bride is in labor and over the Internet via a web cam in countries around the world, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, India, Russia, Japan and Bosnia.
He married one couple at the counter in an AmeriStop where the couple met.
“I want to make sure people are taken care of and people get a good start in their life together,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman at one time had aspirations to start an airline company. But after an unsuccessful run for state representative, he was appointed Kenton County magistrate. He eventually quit his job and performed weddings full time. He now has offices in Covington and Cincinnati and owns A Day to Remember Wedding and Event Rental.
The first wedding he performed in July 1989 he remembers as awkward when the groom froze up and couldn’t speak until the bride kicked him, Hoffman said.
Hoffman said officiating 20,000 weddings has taught him patience as the key to a officiating a good wedding.
“People are very excited on their wedding day and nervous,” Hoffman said. “You’ve just got to get them to calm down. You have to have patience to make people calm. You’ve got to be there for them.”
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Information from: The Kentucky Enquirer, http://www.nky.com

Published in The Messenger 1.5.12

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