Midnight Same-Sex Wedding Comes Together for Aberdeen Couple

Though an Aberdeen couple wanted to apply for a marriage license last Friday—the day of a state Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex couples to wed—they were met with confusion.

Karen and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden wanted to have everything ready for a 12:01 a.m. Monday wedding, but Aberdeen officials said they were waiting for further instructions from the state before they could issue the license. 

“My registrar didn't know which path to take,” Mayor Fred Tagliarini told Patch Monday morning.

By Sunday, Aberdeen officials knew what to do. So, at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the mayor opened town hall to issue a license. 

The couple then drove to Trenton to have the 72-hour waiting period waived by a judge, and was able to have their wedding on the Asbury Park boardwalk just after midnight.

“We couldn’t be happier to help them be one of the first same-sex couples to marry in New Jersey,” said Tagliarini, a Democrat. “The bottom line is I think we were extremely proactive for this couple.”

“It all came together quickly [Sunday] night and we were so pleased.”

The Nicholson-McFaddens "burst into tears" when they discovered they could marry Monday, according to the New York Times. 

The mayor said he is bound to marry any and all couples in his municipality. Tagliarini noted that there isn’t a need to distinguish between straight and same-sex marriages—”there’s only one thing in New Jersey now, a marriage,” he said.

“I’m expecting many more to be filing,” Tagliarini said.