Out of State Officiant

DMoore421

Hi Everyone -- curious if anyone is familiar with the laws regarding officiants.
My BIL is planning to get his certificate online and perform my ceremony.

He is in PA and I as well as FI are in NC.  The wedding will be in Cary.  I have tried looking up to laws / guidelines and am hearing conflicting info on whether this can work out ok or not.  Somethings say he can't because he is out of state - others say he just needs to regiester at the office we will get our marriage certificate from and everything will be fine


Does anyone actually KNOW?

Thanks in adavnce

~diana

Beth0882

I dont think it will matter that he is out of state, and there is not registration requirement.  Our minister was from Texas (an old family friend) and as long as they are recognized by their church, they are fine.  He did not have to do anything.  I think he did call the register of deeds just to be sure, but they said as long as he was recognized byt he Methodist church, and filled out the marriage license, he didn't need to do anything else.

  My concern from you is the online ordination -- be sure it i s a church recognized by NC.  There are several online churches that are not recognized in NC, so proceed carefully!

NcsuPsych

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_north-carolina_out-of-state-officiant?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:115Discussion:adc9a8e7-fb13-4f74-b558-c9fdd38da789Post:21fcbfda-c256-491e-914a-df5e69193ad4">Re: Out of State Officiant</a>:
[QUOTE]I dont think it will matter that he is out of state, and there is not registration requirement.  Our minister was from Texas (an old family friend) and as long as they are recognized by their church, they are fine.  He did not have to do anything.  I think he did call the register of deeds just to be sure, but they said as long as he was recognized byt he Methodist church, and filled out the marriage license, he didn't need to do anything else.  <strong> My concern from you is the online ordination -- be sure it i s a church recognized by NC.  There are several online churches that are not recognized in NC, so proceed carefully!</strong>
Posted by Beth0882[/QUOTE]

This would also be my only concern. Some churches / counties don't recongize the online deals. My husbands aunt married us in 2010, but she was ordained in a church, etc etc. She called and said the registrar said she was fine.

If you're not getting clear answers via the internet/phone, go to the office in person and ask. The last thing you want to do is assume itll all be ok and your BIL have paid to get 'ordained' and then it not pass with NCs laws. I also wouldn't wait until the last minute to check this out. It can sometimes be difficult to find a last minute officiant (and if it is last minute, you could end up paying a lot more).

Good luck!

Yellow+Belle

Unfortunately, North Carolina does not recognize online ordinations (i.e. having your BIL's name on your marriage license as the officiant would put the legality of your marriage into question). For a valid NC marriage your options are:

1) Have the ceremony performed by an officiant recognized by the state
2) Get legally married by a JOP & then have your BIL perform the ceremony in an unofficial capacity. Many brides on here have done this.

HTH

Beth0882

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_north-carolina_out-of-state-officiant?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:115Discussion:adc9a8e7-fb13-4f74-b558-c9fdd38da789Post:83984891-2b22-4dc8-9337-ce7785df3c30">Re: Out of State Officiant</a>:
[QUOTE]Unfortunately, North Carolina does not recognize online ordinations[QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>I wouldn't say that is necessarily true -- it solely depends on the church that is doing the ordaining, not the method.  So, say the Methodist Church suddenly decided to provide online ordinations--NC recognizes the Methodist Church, therefore, would recognize the validity of the online ordination.  However, NC does NOT recognize the Unitarian Church (or hasn't since the 70s or so), so online ordinations provided by that church would not be recognized as valid.  Thus, it really has nothing to do with the online aspect, and all to do with what church is offering it.  </div><div>
</div><div>Now, it may be that the Unitarian Church is the only church that offers online ordination (and is the main one that does)  and therefore by default NC doesn't recognize any online ordinations, but I didn't want it to be confused if there were other churches out there that did offer online ordination...

</div>

Yellow+Belle

Do you mean the Universal Life Church (ULC)? Unitarians are a long-established sect of Christianity. There are quite a few Unitarian churches in NC.

This is the case, specifically mentioning the ULC, in which NC questions any marriage after mid-1981 performed by a ULC minister: http://www.ulcseminary.org/forum/uploads/LynchvULC.pdf
It cites things like "no formal ministerial training,"  "no congregation of his own" & buying a mail order certificate giving him "credentials of a minister" as reasons factoring into the judgement.

You're right that it's not just because it's an online ordination. The case & two appeals say it's not a valid credential due to the fact that it's not tied to any sort of congregation or training.

Beth0882

You're right, I meant ULC -- sorry.  That's what I get for typing so early in the morning, I just remembered that it started with a "U".  Sorry!!

[Deleted User]

I have the same situation(officiant is a pastor from PA, we're getting married in NC but live in FL).  I called the county register of deed's office where I'm getting married(Northampton County) and asked them and they said it was no problem as long as he is a legitimately ordained minister.  I would call if I were you :-)

DMoore421

Thanks, I guess I need to call and check - if it won't work it throws off a lot of my plans and also means i lose a battle with my mother that I really didn't want to lose --- but basically she thinks i should have a priest - which I cant because I am not getting married in a church and I really do not want a religious ceremony...

DMoore421

Just to update - I called the Wake County NC registrar of deeds office today....
Basically they said everything is fine and dandy with brother in law getting ordained online out of state and marrying us here as long as there is no issue down the line and no one contests the marriage at any point ...

If someone were to contest the marriage because he was ordained online - and ULC (Universal Life church ) would be the ordaining party thanks to some suit in the 1860's it would be found to be not valid.... because the statute that was put in place back then is officially still in the books...

just like a PP mentioned they suggest going to a justice of the peace and having it made official that way - and he could still perform a ceremony the next day or what not - or if there are no problems and it is never contested by anyone as far as the state is concerned he can fill everything out and submit it and we are considered just as married as anyone else unless someone contests it ....


so basically as long as no one fights us on the fact that we are married we are fine - he doesn't need to register in this state or anything like that ....