Who says marriage is on the decline? New York City is banking on it to draw scores of new tourists -- and their cash.
NYC is revamping its Marriage Bureau to attract more wedding-minded couples to get hitched in New York. The bureau is getting a $13 million makeover from Mayor Mike Bloomberg's personal interior designer.
Apparently the bureau isn't so attractive right now:
The Marriage Bureau, now on the second floor of the Municipal Building, has sterile marble, and the door to the wedding chapel is painted deep red.
Couples sit on plastic chairs lining the walls in the hallway until their names are called; there is graffiti scratched into the walls; and, worst of all, there are no bathrooms nearby....
"I feel like I'm at the DMV," said one man, who was at the clerk's office to witness a friend's wedding.
The bride-to-be agreed, saying, "It's so institutionalized - not really what you picture your wedding day" to be.
New York, the country's second-biggest issuer of marriage licenses, wants to eclipse Las Vegas as the go-to for vows. But the Big Apple has its work cut out for it: Vegas' Clark County issued more than 112,000 marriage licenses last year -- almost double the number in NYC.
Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach has written about a range of topics, including social policy issues and urban planning and design. Originally from Tennessee, he joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
E-mail: zpatton@governing.com 
Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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