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N.Y. Couple Marries on Subway Train; Is the Law On Board Too?

By Brett Snider, Esq. on December 02, 2014 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A New York couple made the most of their subway ride on Friday by getting married on the train.

The unorthodox wedding occurred aboard an N-line train traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan, where Hector Irakliotis, 26, and Tatyana Sandler, 25, tied the knot in front of friends and random commuters. According to the New York Daily News, the train held a special significance for the couple as the backdrop of much of their romantic history.

Can couples actually be married on a subway train?

In the state of New York, there are very few restrictions on couples wishing to get married. Typically, couples simply have to be 18 years of age and appear before a city clerk to apply for a marriage certificate. Assuming a couple can provide proper ID and pay the $40 fee, they can obtain a marriage license. But they can't get married for at least 24 hours after the marriage license is issued.

After this 24-hour waiting period is over, couples like Irakliotis and Sandler are free to plan and execute whatever wacky ceremony they choose -- within the following 60 days. It's unclear whether the couple got a marriage license in Manhattan (New York County) or Brooklyn (Kings County), but as long as their wedding officiant sent the signed license back to the correct clerk's office, it shouldn't be a problem.

And Speaking of the Officiant...

What would a subway wedding be without a captain at the helm? According to the Bensonhurst Bean, a man by the name of Captain Arnold, an officiant of many unconventional weddings, declared the couple husband and wife aboard the moving N train. Each state has its own laws about who may officiate a wedding, and for weddings performed in New York City, officiants must be registered with the City's Marriage Bureau.

The Captain's own website proclaims that he is the only Captain who is also an "ordained chaplain" registered with the City of New York; if true, then he should be OK to perform weddings anywhere in NYC's five boroughs -- even aboard the N train.

And if we learned anything about relativity from the movie "Interstellar," the couple's marriage was not only legal, it kept them slightly younger.

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