Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
hi,
what's the process for getting 'actually' married?
aside from the reception and the ceremony, which i understand to be only for 'presentation' purposes, i know that the couple need to go to the court house....
but when?
when are you 'actually' considered married?
ps. we're not doing a church wedding. it's just basically a party where a person from the county is coming over for a half hour to pronounce us man and wife...etc.
As I understand it, legally, you are married once your marriage license is signed by all necessary parties. In our case, we had all of our friends over the night before our wedding, including our officiant (who was a friend). We were sitting around talking about how things were going to go the next day and I asked, "so when do we sign the marriage license and stuff?" Our officiant said, "well, we could do that right now... it's after midnight, so the date of your wedding and of your marriage would be the same."
And that's exactly what we did. It was amazing how ALL the stress surrounding the wedding suddenly went away... it made it so that we were already married, and everything we did after that was "just a party." It was perfect for us... and honestly, it's one of my most cherished memories now.
It's hard to recall exactly. You have to go to the courthouse of the county in which you are getting married and apply for a marriage license. Take your birth certificate with you and a picture ID. You probably won't need blood tests -- we didn't, and I think most places don't require that any more.
You'll be issued a marriage certificate of some sort, and on the day of your wedding, that will need to be signed by you and your spouse, the officiant, and maybe the witnesses. Then I think it gets sent back to the courthouse to be registered in the system and later you receive an official copy or something like that.
You're not officially married -- legally, I mean -- until that certificate has been signed by all parties and registered with the county registrar.
I also think there's a timeline. You have to apply for the license a certain amount of time before the ceremony, and the license is then only good for a certain amount of time after it's issued. (In other words, if you apply for the license and then don't have the ceremony, and a month or so passes -- whatever the timeframe is that they give you -- your license will "expire" and you will have to go back to the courthouse to get another license.)
Check with your state to see if you need a blood test prior. I think you need a witness to attend at the court as well. Stop in at your local court to ask for everything you'll need.
Go to the court house and apply for a license. They will ask you some questions, sign and pay a fee. After that is issued you will have a set time have it legalized. You just need it signed by an official, clergy, court officer, capt. of a ship, etc. and one witness. Then have it filed with the court. Bam your married.
Getting divorced is a bit harder. And more expensive.
Not sure about intially......but you now you have been married for awhile, when all you get in the way of sex is hall-way sex. That for the uninitiated, it is whenever you pass each other in the hallway "F*** you".....F*** you too".
This is the best piece of advice given so far. Though many of the answers are generally accurate, specific marriage laws are different depending on where you're getting married so don't go by what people on the internet say unless they back it up with an official government website for your specific location. So find the local website with marriage license info and go by that. For example, I got married in Bucks County, PA so I got my info from here: Marriage Licenses
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
