LEWISTON – An Auburn couple married Thursday only a few steps from where their romance began, at the ticket window of Lewiston’s bus station.
Tracie Weston, 44, wed Clayton Morse, 46, beneath the arrivals and departures marquis.
It was just another ticket-seller-meets-bus-fare love story.
The pair met 50 days earlier, on June 4, when Morse bought a ticket to Arizona. The woman behind the window was Weston.
“I liked her right away,” he said. When he got to Arizona, he called Weston. They talked for hours. He fell in love at first sight, he told her.
“When I first came in, I thought, ‘This is the woman I am going to spend the rest of my life with,'” he said.
As fast as the bus could return Morse home, the two began dating. They quickly decided to marry. Weston and Morse were both married twice before and had endured long wedding services.
They thought about having a city hall ceremony. Then, they imagined the wedding at the Oak Street bus station, where they met and where Weston works with her friends.
Greyhound ticket agent Susan Graham thought Weston was kidding when she first suggested a bus station wedding. When Graham realized Weston was serious, the notary volunteered to conduct the service herself.
Her daughter, station manager Kristie Graham, wrote the vows and served as maid of honor. She also set up the decorations: white paper doves above the ticket counter, a paper cake-like centerpiece and candles that she propped in the center of the station floor.
As if following a transit schedule, the ceremony began precisely at 11 a.m.
Holding hands and facing each other, the couple exchanged vows in voices too hushed to drown out the traffic along Bates Street.
When they paused, the bride’s daughter Tiffany tried to fill the space with her own impromptu wedding march. “Da da da-da,” she began and was quickly hushed.
Even in a bus station, moments can be solemn.
As Weston repeated her vows, she gazed into Morse’s eyes. Her voice cracked. She blushed.
Family, friends and travelers watched.
An elderly gentleman in a Red Sox cap sat on a bench as the ceremony proceeded and disappeared when it was over. Regular bus rider Brittany Dunn of Lewiston joined in on the congratulations when the ceremony ended.
“I come here every day,” she said. “I never expected this.”
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