Couples renew wedding vows at Donegal festival
Robert and Karen Creek of Washington walk down the aisle to renew their wedding vows Saturday at the Three Ridges Fourth of July Festival in Donegal Township.
Eric and Marsha Graham of West Alexander renew their wedding vows with eight other couples Saturday at the Three Ridges Fourth of July Festival in Donegal Township.
WEST ALEXANDER – Nine couples renewed their wedding vows at a Donegal Township festival as the community paid homage to its reputation in the 1800s as a popular destination for quick weddings.
Organizers hoped a couple would have stepped forward at the first Three Ridges Fourth of July Festival to tie the knot in an area that was once known as the Gretna Green of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
“We’re going to try again next year and start promoting it earlier” said Doug Teagarden, a township supervisor and festival organizer.
Gretna Green was a place for clandestine weddings in Scotland, and West Alexander earned the same nickname because nearly 7,000 couples flocked there from Ohio and West Virginia to get married prior to 1885 when Pennsylvania did not require couples to have marriage licenses. The couples were married then by justices of the peace who took on the nickname “marrying squires,” festival organizers said.
“We used to have a Gretna Green Festival in town before West Alexander merged with Donegal Township,” Teagarden said.
He said it was decided to “marry” that festival in to a new Fourth of July event that became a fundraiser for the local fire department.
The couples renewed their vows in a Christian service accompanied by violinists under a large fabric quonset hut.
“Love never fails,” the Rev. Daniel Grimes of the United Methodist Church of West Alexander said before the couples strolled to the “altar” along a well-trodden grassy aisle. About 40 people witnessed the ceremony.
“Our grandson is a volunteer fireman (here) so we do anything for the fire department,” said Karen Creek, who married Robert Creek in 1994 and participated in Saturday’s service.
The festival also included frontier re-enactors, a car cruise, a display of historical photographs, live music throughout the day and fireworks Saturday night.