marriage license

erindennis

How do you go about getting a marriage license and how long do they last? I am trying to check off as much stuff and I heard it expires? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

hvcfringe

it depends on where you live, there are some that are vaild for 60 days while other are only for a couple weeks. you can look it up on a website go to google and just type in marriage liscence for yout state and the first link will probably give you a list of cities and the info for them.

Calypso1977

here in Mass you can get it up to 60 days before.  you can obtain it from any town/city clerk's office, and it can then be used in any city or town in Mass.

contact your local town clerk.  shop around.  all the clerk's offices charge different rates.  you dont have to get it where you live or where you are getting married.

JennandJoel2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_marriage-license-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:615Discussion:308774df-292d-4391-b6e8-28eb112722e0Post:4e0fbda6-fbdf-4c8e-abcd-07b5758de861">Re: marriage license</a>:
[QUOTE]here in Mass you can get it up to 60 days before.  you can obtain it from any town/city clerk's office, and it can then be used in any city or town in Mass. contact your local town clerk.  shop around.  all the clerk's offices charge different rates. <strong> you dont have to get it where you live or where you are getting married.
</strong>Posted by Calypso1977[/QUOTE]

This really depends. In Connecticut you must get your license for the town where the ceremony is taking place. To echo others, I'd look into the rules for your state and follow up with city hall.

Edit: Just saw you're both in Mass. Makes sense!

ElisabethJoanne

FWIW, the law in Mass. sounds like the law here in Cal., but our licenses are good for up to 90 days.

[Deleted User]

In Ohio, it was only good for 30 days before the wedding and had to be issued in the county in which we were going to marry. We were out of state at the time, so we just got it as soon as we got back home and a few days before the wedding.

bibliophile2010

It's interesting to see all the differences. In Arizona, you have to get the license in the county where you are getting married, but it is good for a full year. Even so, we got it a couple of weeks before the wedding, because that's when we both had time to go deal with it during the day.

professorscience

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_marriage-license-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:615Discussion:308774df-292d-4391-b6e8-28eb112722e0Post:d6a467af-efb8-4ea3-81c2-0fb6f3a804ab">Re: marriage license</a>:
[QUOTE]It's interesting to see all the differences. In Arizona, you have to get the license in the county where you are getting married,<strong> but it is good for a full year.</strong> Even so, we got it a couple of weeks before the wedding, because that's when we both had time to go deal with it during the day.
Posted by bibliophile2010[/QUOTE]

Wow, that is super convenient.  In Texas, you can get the license in any county, but they are only good for 30 days and there is a 72-hour waiting period.  H and I ended up waiting until the last possible day, actually, because we had such a hard time getting time off.  I actually had to have someone cover my last class of the day to make it to the records office in time.

ellen73

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_marriage-license-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:615Discussion:308774df-292d-4391-b6e8-28eb112722e0Post:df6138ad-15e5-4ed6-a463-081dbb0da72e">Re: marriage license</a>:
[QUOTE]In Ohio, it was only good for 30 days before the wedding and had to be issued in the county in which we were going to marry. We were out of state at the time, so we just got it as soon as we got back home and a few days before the wedding.
Posted by MissySue20[/QUOTE]

That is what Franklin County said...  but the week before the wedding when we went to Cuyahoga County,  the lady gave us a super hard time b/c she said we had to get the license in the county one of us resided in (DH never lived in Ohio, and technically I was not a resident of anywhere that week before the wedding). It was my one and only moment where I approached Bridezillaness, esp. since I had called both counties to make sure of the rules.  DH lived in another state, I lived in Columbus at the time & we were getting married in Cleveland.  Luckily I never updated my driver's license so it still listed an address in Cuyahoga County.  And if that didn't work, I had worked with the probate court judge (this lady's boss) when I was in college & was ready to say "yeah, call your boss!!"  I was slightly disappointed it didn't come to that :) 

lalaith50

Yeah, sometimes the rules are so crazy! (I know the OPs question has already been answered, but,) in Michigan we had to get it within 33 days before the wedding, but couldn't pick it up (and use it) until 3 days later. Also, the best part was that only one of us had to be there to get it! (DH would have had to take work off for the whole day to drive all the way to get it with me! So that was super-convenient.)

lmeade62

Ditto the previous posters - call a local county. In fact, call a couple. In Missouri, you can get your license in any county - you don't have to get it in the county where you're getting married. However, it's only good for 30 days. Take cash, too, because we were told by one county that we could write a check, but when we got there they would only take cash! I had to jog to the ATM to get it, LOL. We also were told we didn't need our divorce decrees - which fortunately turned out to be true, we only needed the dates of our divorces - but that information varied depending on who we called, so I'd take that stuff with you too, just in case.

I have to say, going to get the marriage license was one of the cooooolest parts of the process. It made it so real!

Linda