Thousands of New York couples that get licensed to marry don’t go through with it.
The city’s cold-feet index is 6.5 percent, with roughly one in 15 couples calling off their plans after getting licensed, according to data obtained by The Post.
In the first half of 2011, 2,132 of the 32,794 couples who applied for licenses didn’t get hitched. After paying the $35 fee, couples must wait a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 60 days to wed.
“Cold feet are hard to measure, because we can’t tell with absolute certainty how many couples are just procrastinating marriage for months or years and how many are putting it off for good,” City Clerk Michael McSweeney told The Post. “But normally, if you go as far as getting a marriage license, you actually get married.”
It’s rare for weddings to unravel at the city’s chapel, but such incidents remain the stuff of legend within the clerk’s office, McSweeney said.
In the most famous such tale, “a mother who did not approve of the lady her son was to marry became so enraged, and things became so nasty, that the police had to be called in,” he said. “But that was before my time.”
When performing ceremonies, McSweeney does ask if anyone sees reason to object to the nuptials, and one time, the bride’s 10-year-old son took him up on it.
“He started crying, ‘I don’t want you to marry him,’ ” he said. “But the bride’s sister took the boy out of the room and the marriage went ahead.”
The hundreds of couples lining up to get married last week said they weren’t surprised so many brides and grooms get cold feet, but all insisted they wouldn’t be among them.
“I think that once you get the license it becomes more real. Before you get the paper, it’s just a fun idea,” said Rachel Roth, 25, a nurse from Louisiana who applied for a license Thursday with her fiancé, Kyle Purgatoria, 26. “But once you get the license, it’s a concrete thing and people get scared.”
New York may not be Las Vegas, but “it is the city that never sleeps, and people do sometimes choose to get married on a whim,” said Kristin Koch, senior editor of theknot.com.
“Then after a little time, and a little wedding planning, couples can make a more sober decision.”
| Year | 2010 | 2011 (first half |
| Marriage licenses | 65,929 | 32,794 |
| Marriages | 61,685 |
30,662 |
| Cold feet couples | 4,244 |
2,132 |
| Cold feet index | 6.4% | 6.5% |
| Source: NYC City Clerk | ||