Fewer say 'I do' in Hamilton County

<p>Georgia couples used to flock to Hamilton County to say their wedding vows.</p><p>Then came a Tennessee law requiring premarital counseling and Georgia's repeal of its blood test prerequisite.</p><p>Now, officials say more Georgia residents are staying in-state and Tennesseans are the ones crossing the border to wed.</p><p>"It's common arithmetic," Hamilton County Clerk Bill Knowles said. "If we live in a border area and its cheaper and easier to get married across the border, that's where people are going to go."</p><p>As of July 1, 2002, couples applying for a marriage license in Tennessee must first attend four hours of marriage counseling or pay an additional $60 on top of the $37.50 license fee.</p><p>The extra money funds divorce education programs, which are required for couples with children who decide to get divorced.</p><p>For Tennessee couples who do not receive counseling, the license fee is the most expensive in the country.</p><p>Meanwhile, marriage licenses in Georgia cost $26. And last year, Georgia's Legislature repealed a law requiring couples to pass a blood test before receiving a license. The same requirement was dropped in Tennessee in 1985.</p><p>"I wouldn't have gotten married in Tennessee," said Sabrina Frost, a former East Ridge resident who recently crossed the state line to marry and moved into her new husband's home in Ringgold, Ga. "I think it's a person's own choice to get counseling."</p><p>Others share her sentiments. Records show that the number of marriage licenses issued in Hamilton County since January 2003 has dropped sharply. In 2002, the county issued 4,711 licenses. The next year, that number declined 23 percent, to 3,610.</p><p>Knowles says the number will almost certainly drop again from 2003 to 2004. Through the first five months of 2003, the county sold 1,625 licenses. This year, the number through May is down to 1,171, a 27 percent drop.</p><p>"It's undoubtedly hurting a lot of businesses," said Karen Petty, co-owner of the Mountain Oaks Wedding Chapel in Ooltewah. "I've heard a lot of complaints that we're losing people to Georgia. There are a lot of angry people."</p><p>But some say the changes in Tennessee and Georgia law are not the sole reasons for the shift.</p><p>In May 2003, the county told five local ministers they could no longer wait at the courthouse to perform marriage ceremonies. The ministers had taken to arguing among themselves over who would get the services of the next couple to emerge from the courthouse, officials said.</p><p>"It got to be such a problem, but it has taken away a service," Knowles said. "That, in a way, was a detriment to the public who were looking to find someone to marry them."</p>

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