• Atsuko Okatsuka and her husband received married in 2017, however the paperwork was by no means filed.
• They needed to go to the Los Angeles County courthouse to have a second wedding ceremony.
• That is their story, as advised to author Gary Nunn.

This as-told-to essay is predicated on a dialog with Atsuko Okatsuka. It has been edited for size and readability.

My wedding ceremony to my husband, Ryan, was a stupendous day. Folks flew in from everywhere in the world to look at us say our vows.

I received such an ideal deal on wedding ceremony clothes that I purchased two as a result of I could not decide, one for $50 and one other for $100. I ended up selecting the $50 one for my large day.

Ryan and I met on a movie set 9 years in the past in Los Angeles, the place we reside. My good friend Clayton was making a brief movie, I used to be producing it for him, and Ryan was performing in it. Clayton claims we ruined the film as a result of Ryan and I have been flirting a lot. We have been falling for one another throughout the filming, and it by no means received completed. I assume we have been too distracted.

It turned out that Clayton was a celebrant, and he supplied to marry us, as he was the one who launched us. So six years in the past, Clayton married us. Or so we thought! This month, I discovered we’re not really legally married in any respect.

My husband and I have been shocked to be taught we weren’t technically married

I would been making an attempt to get Ryan on my medical insurance for some time. We have been requested for proof that we have been married, particularly, our marriage certificates. We thought we might had one sooner or later, however we’re not excellent at paperwork, and after we went to search for it, we could not discover one anyplace in the home.

So we despatched off a request to the Metropolis of Los Angeles for a duplicate of our marriage certificates, then set off for a vacation in Tokyo, and Taipei, Taiwan, considering the wedding certificates can be in our mailbox after we returned. It wasn’t.

My husband referred to as town, and when he lastly received by, it advised him that we weren’t legally married. There was no record of us being married. Although we had a marriage in 2017 with 180 of our closest family and friends, the paperwork had by no means been filed.

I used to be half asleep once I heard it, as I would been taking a nap. I assumed it was a dream. Then I fell again asleep. That is how I take care of issues and battle: I go to sleep, like a child. It is so very like me and my husband to have this occur. We aren’t excellent at being adults. Once I awakened, my “husband” was working round making an attempt to determine what to do about this downside we might discovered ourselves with.

It was beginning to sink in that we hadn’t been married this entire time. For the previous six years, we might mainly simply been relationship, like boyfriend and girlfriend. That is after we began laughing. In spite of everything, I am a comic. You could not write these items.

We headed to the courthouse to get married — for the 2nd time

We would have liked to type it out: not simply get married for actual however show we might received married six years in the past. To take action, we discovered we needed to drive an hour to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk with two witnesses who have been on the first wedding ceremony. I took my grandma, who introduced me up, and my good friend Kevin Yee, who had many roles on the day of our second wedding ceremony — usher, singer, flower lady, purse holder. My grandma stifled giggles whereas she hummed the normal “Wedding ceremony March” track as we walked alongside the hall to the workplace.

I attempted to obscure the main points of what had occurred once I defined it to my grandma so she would not be disillusioned in us. I used to be like, “You understand, with authorities papers, there are simply so many information. Generally paperwork would not undergo because it ought to — such a problem, proper?” It was so she would not assume that we have been simply silly. However she stated: “It is fantastic — when would you like me?”

Then, I texted Clayton and stated, “Hey, guess what, joke, me and Ryan aren’t really married!” And his quick response was, “OMG — is that this my fault?”

I hadn’t considered whether or not it might need been his job to file the paperwork since we’re not excellent in that space. Once I posted a video, commenters stated it is the officiator’s job to file the paperwork. Possibly this was him exacting his revenge on me and Ryan “ruining” his brief movie. He’ll assume it is so humorous I am blaming him. Or possibly he’ll be mad. Who is aware of?

My father-in-law is a preacher and begged to do our ceremony, however we stated no. We advised him that we did not imagine in his sort of Christianity as a result of it is conservative and homophobic. We needed to have a queer good friend of ours marry us. What’s humorous is, my father-in-law would by no means have misplaced the paperwork.

They backdated our marriage certificates

We at the moment are married. We needed to pay $200, and so they backdated the certificates to 2017. They did not ask for footage or something — we may’ve received two witnesses off the road. The entire thing appears so foolish to me: The straights received married once more. It was identical to, “Give us $200. This is your wedding ceremony certificates, dumb-dumbs.” I can not imagine we withheld marriage from homosexual individuals this lengthy after we’re so careless with it. I needed to remarry the identical particular person with out us ever splitting up.

I did get to put on that second, dearer costume, although. Possibly I used to be cursed for preserving two clothes. The universe was like, “Properly, you have not worn the second but.”

On the day, they issued two marriage certificates. One was to remove there after which. And I’ve a confession: We have already misplaced that one. The other one just arrived in the mail this week, thank God.

And sure, I can undoubtedly see this in one among my upcoming comedy routines. It is too good to not embody.