One of the many perks of being mayor in an Ohio city is the ability to officiate weddings for its city’s residents, and Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl has taken full advantage.
In the five years that Wiehl has been the mayor of Athens, about 60 couples have exchanged vows with Wiehl performing the service.
“It happens pretty regularly, actually,” Wiehl said. “When I was running for office five years ago, I learned that I was able to (officiate weddings) when a couple asked me to marry them. So I realized it was part of the mayor’s duties. I’ve had big, elaborate weddings and I’ve had small, elaborate weddings in my office.”
According to section 3101.08 of the Ohio Revised Code, the mayor of a municipal corporation in any county “may join together as husband and wife any persons who are not prohibited by law from being joined in marriage.”
Wiehl doesn’t limit his ministerial duties to just friends and family and instead has performed weddings for students, retirees and citizens he has never met before.
“The weddings are always very nice,” Wiehl said. “There was one up in The Ridges that was extremely hot. I had a Chinese couple once that had great food at the wedding. One couple had cello players and violinists. There was one at Strouds Run that was nice on the water. I’ve done weddings for the kids at the university.”
Since performing weddings is a mayoral duty, Wiehl said he never charges for the service.
“It’s not a revenue-generating operation,” Wiehl said. “I’m actually unclear as to what I’d do if someone gave me money for it.”
Some Athenian couples chose Wiehl to officiate their wedding because he was their friend beforehand, including Tina Timberman, Athens city income tax administrator, who was married this past March.
“(My husband and I) wanted someone we knew as opposed to a stranger,” Timberman said. “(Wiehl) was very professional and caring. The wedding was a closed and romantic ceremony.”
Though Wiehl and other Ohio mayors are able to officiate weddings, the local judge does the majority of the work, Wiehl said.
“My job is to solemnize the marriage, so in other words to do the actual wedding,” Wiehl said. “There’s actually a whole series of paperwork you have to do to make sure the license is legitimate and that all takes place at the Probate Court’s Office.”
Unlike Wiehl, Mayor Richard Keebler of Oxford, Ohio, has performed five weddings for people he personally knows
“Typically for me, the idea is that it’s not something that’s planned out for months and months and months. A mayor’s ceremony is to take care of a simple civil ceremony,” Keebler said. “The most rewarding part of it is seeing the smiles on the faces of my friends. It’s a very enjoyable experience.”
az346610@ohiou.edu
