AROUND 170 civil weddings took place all over Cyprus yesterday marking the date 11.11.11 but Aradippou in Larnaca snagged the most ceremonies, marrying 100 couples.

Aradippou mayor Christakis Liperis said all of the couples came from Israel where there is no civil marriage.  Aradippou municipality has specialised in weddings for Israeli couples for the past 15 years, he said.

Liperis said that other so-called auspicious date s  such as 10.10.10 has also brought more couples to the island and he said he expects an even bigger turn out for 12.12.12. 

“It looks like more and more people want to have their wedding on dates that appear to be significant,” said Liperis, who said that in addition to the 100 weddings performed at his municipality yesterday, he was also due to marry another 40 couples in a mass ceremony  at a hotel in Paphos later in the day. The group; had chosen that hotel specifically, he said.

However it appears the expansion of his mandate into the territory of other municipalities in the Paphos region did not go down so well, he said, and he could be facing an official complaint at the Union of Municipalities saying he did not have the authority to perform marriages outside of his jurisdiction.

Apart from Aradippou, other areas saw an increase number of weddings yesterday, Most of the couples were from Israel and Lebanon but some Greek Cypriots also wanted to mark the special date.

Ten civil ceremonies took place at Nicosia Municipality – a record for one day. Eight of the couples were Lebanese.

“My father’s who’s dead had a friend from Jordan and they used to make a wish on these special dates, so we decided to get married on one of these special dates because he loved them so much,” said Imad Anbara from Lebanon.

His new bride, Maha described their journey to Cyprus as a bit of a “miracle” as obtaining a visa usually takes four days but when they went to the Cypriot embassy in Beirut on Monday, it was closed. However once their application was filed, it took only two days in the end.

“We’re very, very happy with the service. If I could describe it in one word it would be ‘excellent’,” she said.

Another couple who came from Israel for the day, Gili and Gila Katz, said they had been together for ten years on 11.11.11. “It’s a real decision to live with someone forever,” Gili said.

Larnaca had 17 civil marriages yesterday, three were Greek Cypriots, six were from Lebanon and eight were from Israel.

Cyprus Mail