Romantic Ritual: Dozens Marry On Courthouse Steps

Russell and Heather Braxton had planned to get married on the beach in September.

Planning their wedding was stressing them out, though. Then he suggested a courthouse ceremony in their hometown.

"This was less stressful," said Heather, 23, shortly after their marriage ceremony.

"Less stressful and cheaper," Russell, 28, chimed in a moment later.

The Braxtons were among a half-dozen couples who took Valentine's Day vows on the steps of the historic Pasco County Courthouse.

The ceremony was part of a new tradition by Paula O'Neil, the county's newly elected circuit court clerk. O'Neil's office offered free civil marriages in observance of Valentine's Day.

Seven couples also took O'Neil up on her offer Saturday in a gazebo ceremony at the J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park outside New Port Richey.

With dozens of friends and family members gathered to watch, O'Neil administered the wedding ceremony to all the couples at once, reading from a red page covered in hearts. At times, passing traffic drowned out what she was saying.

Saturday's ceremony at the courthouse was a crucial point in Michael and Laura Davison's nine-year relationship. The Land O' Lakes couple got engaged two years ago.

"We were going to do this eventually," Laura Davison said.

"I was fine until I stepped out onto the back porch to give her the ring," Michael said. "Then my knees started shaking."

For Evans Weeden, 76, and Patricia Robey-Weeden, 65, the ceremony offered a second chance at love and marriage.

The Weedens recently began spending the winter in Zephyrhills, coming from their home near Richmond, Va.

A relationship that began as co-workers at a lumber company blossomed into romance after Weeden's first wife died in late 2007 after an illness.

The couple had been engaged three months before their wedding.

"I wanted to get married on Valentine's Day," Robey-Weeden said. "It feels great."