Monday, November 22, 2010

License to Wed

The first step in making your marriage legal is for you and your future partner to go to your local probate court to apply for a marriage license. If either of you are a resident of the state of Georgia, you can go to any probate court to get a license that is good to marry anywhere in the state of Georgia. It makes sense to go to your local probate court, even if you are getting married in a different county as it is easier to go local.

If neither of you are residents of the state of Georgia then you must make application to marry in the SAME COUNTY where the service is to be held. Also, if either of you have been married before, be sure to ask if you need to bring a CERTIFIED copy of your divorce decree with you as you make application to marry. My understanding is that if you are residents of Georgia you do not need this document, but I would ask anyway just to be sure.

There are no required blood tests anymore, so you needle-phobes can just relax. You do need to take your drivers’ licenses (or a certified copy of your birth certificate or a passport if you don’t drive) with you. At the probate court they will have you fill out and sign some papers and pay them some money. Then they will give you a document which you will give to me before the service. I am required by law to fill that document out and send it back in to the probate court promptly after the service. That document does NOT require witnesses. Hopefully they will give you a return envelope for me to use but not always.

Since that document does not require witnesses, sometimes couples will cook up an unofficial document that does have a place for the couple, witnesses, and me to sign and is used as a photo-op after the ceremony, but that is somewhat unusual as you generally already have enough wedding details to see to already.

Once I fill that document out (I simply fill in the date you were married, the city and county, my signature, title and address) and send it in, it typically takes about two or three weeks for the probate court to generate your original marriage certificate(s). I do suggest that you ask them about getting some extra, certified copies for your filing cabinet as you will be asked for certified copies of your marriage certificate at various times during your married life (for example, insurance companies love to ask for a certified copy to prove that you are married).

Now, as for GETTING your certified copies, different probate courts behave differently in this regard. Some will automatically mail them to you. Other probate courts ask you to come back in to pick them up. This is something you should ask them about on your first trip to the probate court. That way, you will know exactly what you will need to do – or not do – to get your marriage certificate(s). If they require you to pick them up, that is sometimes helpful because your next step would be to take a certified copy to the Social Security office to apply for the bride’s name change.

In some cases, couples are in a hurry to receive their certified copies of their marriage certificate. In this case, you need to ask the probate court if you can hand deliver that document that I fill out so that they can generate your certified copies right away. Some probate courts will do this and others won’t. Again, it is important that you ask as you make your application if you need this extra level of service.

If you are going on a cruise for your honeymoon, be sure to tell your wedding minister as you will need to take with you a copy of that document that I send in after the service. I’m not exactly sure why you need this, but my experience has taught me that this is the case. That document has no official purpose other than for the probate court to use to generate your marriage certificate but for some reason the cruise lines require it before boarding.

In the sixteen years or so since I became a wedding minister, there have been a few occasions where the document that I fill out and send in gets lost somewhere between my mailbox and the probate court. If this happens do not panic. The probate court can re-issue the document that you gave to me before the service to do again.. You can mail it to me and I can fill it out and mail it back in to the probate court and presto, problem solved – all by mail.

In this downward economy, I have noticed that probate courts are somewhat slower than usual in generating marriage licenses, so be patient with them. I’m guessing this has to do with reduced staff at probate courts in order to save money. I have also seen an upturn in misplaced documents in the last few years as they pass through the USPS. Again, I’m guessing this has a lot to do with reduced staff and corner cutting on the part of the post office but I can’t be sure.

Again, fixing the problem of lost documents is easily fixed with a call or quick visit to your probate court. If you arrange for your certified marriage certificate(s) to be mailed to you and you DON’T receive them within a month, the first thing you want to do is contact the probate court to see if there was a misunderstanding about how you retrieve them. They will help you go from there.

-Rev. Sam
www.revsam.com