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E-mail StoryA 'leap'ing anniversary: Remembering once every four years not bad
| Thursday, Feb 28 2008 2:44 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Feb 29 2008 9:31 AM
It’s inevitable for some babies to be born on Feb. 29, when that date rolls around every four years. But for a couple to choose to marry on leap day? Well, it’s complicated.
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Ed and Maryann Covert on their wedding day, Feb. 29, 1992. (Photo courtesy of Ed and Maryann Covert)
Ed and Maryann Covert with their daughters, Taylor and Claire. (Photo courtesy of Ed and Maryann Covert)
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Just ask Ed and Maryann Covert, who married on leap day 1992.
After he got up the nerve to propose in October 1991, Ed said, “I asked her at that time, ‘What’s the minimum amount of time that you need to plan a wedding?’ I didn’t see any real reason to prolong the engagement.”
Ed had some special considerations.
One was that he ran a summer camp for children, and the earlier he could get married and get into the routine of married life before making camp preparations, the better.
But the most important consideration was his best friend, Doug Riley, of Sacramento. Ed had been the best man at Riley’s wedding on the first weekend in March 1991. Now it was Riley’s turn and Ed wanted to share an anniversary weekend with his pal.
“It seemed kind of a neat thing to do, to sort of share that together as we grew old in our marriages,” he said. (Now even their wives and kids have become best friends.)
But the first weekend day in March 1992 was March 1, a Sunday, and the place where Washington-born Maryann wanted to get married, the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps church, was already booked with services and other activities.
So it had to be Feb. 29.
But then the complications started.
“You could get married and the ceremony could be officiated that day by Washington law,” Ed said.
However, “The State of Washington made them declare either the day before or March 1 as their marriage date on their marriage license, as February 29 is not legal to declare in this instance,” explained his mother-in-law, Barbara Newbould, in an e-mail. “They chose March 1.”
Indeed, the Coverts’ wedding invitations say the ceremony is on Feb. 29, but their marriage certificate is dated March 1, 1992.
“It’s easy for me because I only have to remember my anniversary every four years,” Ed joked.
“It makes those anniversaries that come along that are on the 29th extra special,” Maryann said. “They’re all special, though.”
The reason Ed’s golden retriever, Alex, now dead, is in his wedding photo, is because she was a big part of his life, and his and Maryann’s wedding.
“Everyone sort of associated me with this dog,” he said. “It was pretty important for her to be a part of that.”
Ed’s father, also named Ed Covert, who was a minister at the time and officiated the wedding at his son and daughter-in-law’s request, paused at the end of the ceremony before introducing them as husband and wife.
The well-behaved and devoted Alex was at the back of the church.
“I whistled for her and she came running full sprint down the center aisle of the church and jumped up into my arms,” Ed Covert said.
Only then were the Coverts, dog and all, introduced to the congregation as a family.