STORY:
First Millennium Marriage Planned

According to New Zealand's The Press, Hayley Chapman and Dion Wynyard of Welcome Bay in Tauranga New Zealand plan to take their vows at midnight on December 31, 1999. The couple want to be noted in the history books as the first to officially say "I do" but they have to overcome an unusual law to do so.

Ms Chapman, 19, and Mr. Wynyard, 29, had to schedule a trip to the Chatham Islands to be nearer the international date line and the rising sun of the new century.

Now they are waiting anxiously for Parliament to rubber stamp the 1998 Statutes Amendments Bill, which will wipe the restriction of having to be married between the hours of 6am and 10pm.

Mr. Wynyard, a mobile disc jockey, said he never envisaged having to get married within a certain time frame. "It seems ridiculous," he told the The Press.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman told The Press the restrictions dated back years and were put in place by the Church to prevent secretive or intoxicated marriages.

She said the ministry started researching the bill in August last year, when they speculated people would want permission to get married at midnight on New Year's Eve 1999.

Source: The Press

DATE: 4/08/99

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