A month after their wedding day, Amoy Barnes and Matthew Smalls can now laugh about the afternoon they nearly went home unmarried from Maplewood Municipal Court.
The plan was simple: a quick courthouse ceremony on a Tuesday afternoon, followed by a small reception in the home they’d closed on a week earlier.
Then the judge didn’t show.
What was supposed to be a 15‑minute ceremony turned into a waiting game.
For Smalls, a litigator with more than 20 years of experience, the problem felt almost absurd. “I’ve had clients not show up, court attorneys not show up, stenographers not show up. I’ve never had a matter where the judge didn’t show up,” he said.
Calling the wedding off wasn’t on the table. About 30 relatives and friends – from Boston, Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx and upstate New York – were waiting with them.
House First, Wedding Second
They had planned carefully. After four years together and two years engaged, the couple chose what felt like the sensible path.
“We went through the conversation of having a big wedding or buying a house,” Barnes said. “We settled on, ‘Let’s buy a house and have an intimate micro‑wedding.’”
They chose a Tuesday because it fit everyone’s schedules; only later did it strike her that it happened to be Cinco de Mayo, “one of my favorite days.”
They had the house, the outfits, the caterer and the guests. All they needed was someone to say the words.
“We were going to find a way because that was the day,” Smalls said. “Everything was ready to go.”
From Third Base to the Courthouse
Then came a call.
Smalls recalled the court administrator saying, “Listen, I got in touch with the mayor. He can come, but he just got out of a softball game and is in a T‑shirt and shorts.”
“I don’t care what he’s wearing. Just come here and marry us,” Smalls said.
In a social media post about the scheduling mix-up, Maplewood Mayor Vic De Luca summed it up: “First time for this, from third base to the courthouse.”
As an attorney, Smalls works as a government affairs strategist and community volunteer. Originally from Albany, New York., he has lived in South Orange for 11 years, where he co‑parents a daughter from a previous marriage. He has been active in the local community, including work on transportation issues and contributions to the village master plan.
Barnes serves as the top intergovernmental affairs leader for the New York City Department of Education. She grew up on Staten Island and is a former New York City Council candidate. After moving to South Orange, she became involved in local advocacy, joining the Community Coalition on Race, where she served as a trustee.
Despite the courthouse snafus, the couple never doubted the wedding would take place that day. “I have such fervent belief in myself that I knew I was going to make it happen,” Smalls said. “We weren’t going anywhere.”
De Luca arrived from the field, still in his game clothes, and the couple huddled with the mayor, their best man and maid of honor to go over the vows.
“He asked, ‘You guys okay with this?’” Smalls recalled. “I said, ‘No, you look great. Let’s go’.”
“In life and in marriage, you have to go with the flow,” Smalls said. “You make plans and God laughs.”
Barnes said the mayor set aside any concern about how he looked and simply focused on stepping up for their family. “He really did save the day. Even in his ball clothes, he did such a great job. It didn’t feel in any way, shape or form less than,” she said.
A Town Watching
After the ceremony, as the couple began ushering guests toward their house, the mayor asked for a photo, sparking an impromptu mini‑shoot on his phone. He soon shared a shot on social media. “Join me in congratulating the happy couple from South Orange,” DeLuca wrote.
Mayor Vic De Luca, in his softball uniform, stepped in to officiate the courthouse wedding of Amoy Barnes and Matthew Smalls and later posted this photo to Facebook.
Before they made it back home, their phones started buzzing with friends who’d already seen the mayor’s post. “People were texting, ‘We saw it on Facebook,’ and we were like, ‘Wait, what?’”
Soon it felt as if the whole town had watched it unfold. “Everywhere we go, people tell us, ‘We saw the post, congratulations.’”
Smalls’ daughter, Dalia, took notice, too. At Columbia High School, teachers and staff told her they’d seen her father’s wedding on Facebook – something that, he said, finally earned him a rare nod of “cool.”
A Practical Happily‑Ever‑After
The reception was held in their century‑old Tudor in the Tuxedo Park section of South Orange. They hadn’t moved in their own belongings yet, but rented chairs and tables and dressed the rooms in sage and gold.
“We focused on being simple but elegant and affordable,” Barnes said, adding they hired women‑owned and local vendors. “Even though we had a small wedding, for us it’s also about being thoughtful about who we give our business to.”
“Everyone who was there was blown away, just the vibe and the love in our home.”
The honeymoon, for now, is practical. “We just got our floors done,” Smalls joked. “We’re going to honeymoon with a new washer and dryer, and a water softener system.”
As it turned out, the wedding was everything they wanted and so is the follow up.
“Some people get married and they’re in the New York Times. We got married, we’re in the Village Green,” Smalls said. “This is my adopted hometown, so I’m very happy to be in the Village Green.”
