Say the groom is a Texas resident and bride is a California resident. Wedding is in California. Does the groom apply for a marriage license from the government of Texas or California?
Does it make any difference if the bride and groom plan to immediately move to Texas after the California wedding?
nope no difrence and you have to get the license for the place your married in whether ya married or not and you get the license from the county courthouse your having the wedding at in ca
to be clearer for example if your having your wedding in in la county CA you go to the nearest la county courthouse for the license and they both apply for the license together
Need answer fast?
Makes sense. Thanks!
In Alabama the deal is get the license in the county where you’re going to be married, and pay the bond to that county.
I think you then have 30 days to have the thing officiated (church, minister, JP, whatever), or the bond is forfeited. The officiating minister, in my opinion oddly, explained that he believed the marriage was accomplished at the point the license was approved; I didn’t question him. Too bad, maybe.
My ex-wife didn’t like my idea: Take my sword out to a pretty place in the wilderness, and place it on the ground. Join hands and recite, “Jump, rogue, and leap, whore; married be forevermore.”
When you both step across the sword, you’re married. Or she can pick up the sword, cut your heart out with it, and you’re definitely not married. This thing might not be easy to codify as law. But it’s a lot easier than many other ways the event might (or might not be) handled. And, of course, the romance and cuteness of the sword might just as easily be replaced with a loaded AR-15 and a slightly different application.
My daughter and her fiance were both living in Germany, then got married in California, and did it with a California license, no problem.
That’s the way it is everywhere. The license is the place where the wedding is held regardless of the residencies of the bride and groom. If you’re from New York and have a destination wedding in Hilton Head, you get a South Carolina marriage license. Different states do have different requirements regarding the exact location where you get the license (For example, Hawaii lets you get a license anywhere that is good for all of the islands. Some states make you get it in the county in which the wedding is taking place.)
When I lived in one state and had a wedding in a different state, I researched the marriage laws in both states and got the license in the state that was less draconian. That turned out to be the place I lived, so we were officially married a couple weeks before the wedding ceremony. We simply went out to a nice dinner and filled out the marriage license.
Had I waited and done it in the state where the ceremony was held, I would have had to go to some stupid class or something before actually being married. Didn’t seem worth the hassle.
Considering the amount of people I’ve known who got married without knowing anything about the legal and economic consequences, or how it affected child custody issues, that “stupid class” sounds like it might be a great idea, if it’s done correctly.
My wife was living in Conn and I was in NY, but we got married in NJ. For some reason, we could not both to get to NJ at the same time, so I went with her mother on one occasion and she went with her mother a day or so later. It was a small town (Salem) where everybody knew everybody else and the registrar went along.
Another peculiarity was the I was a NY resident only temporarily and was considered to be domiciled in Penna. This became an issue when we made wills in Canada and the notary had to know our “marriage regime”.
To get married in California you need a license from California, but it doesn’t need to be from the specific county where the wedding takes place. For example, I got married in Contra Costa County but my license is from San Mateo County. (It was just easier for us to get to the San Mateo County office that day.). Not only that, but our residence then and now is Alameda County.
Any fans of old movies here?
It seems like I remember some 1950s or so movies where the young lovers had a strong desire to immediately get married–and didn’t want to wait around to satisfy the waiting requirements of the state they were living in–so eloped to another state and got their license and married there.
Any movies come to mind?
Not a movie, but in real life my teenage grandparents eloped to Maryland during WWII. No blood test or waiting period; (they literally set off right after grandpa proposed*), got married by a justice of the peace, stopped a diner afterward where grandma got food poisoning, and ended up driving back home so she could spend her wedding night sick with her mother while grandpa slept on their couch. Then he went off to the Pacific while she finished her senior year of high school (once the school board was satisfied she wasn’t pregnant).
*She also quit smoking cold turkey and threw her cigarettes out the car window when he said he couldn’t marry a woman who smoked.
That sort of thing was an important point in Guys and Dolls.
Briefly, Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide have been engaged for years. Nathan keeps coming up with excuses as to why they can’t get married any time soon, or even set a date. When pushed far enough, Nathan offers the excuse that they cannot get married today or tomorrow, because they need time to get the license, find time for blood tests, and so on. At which point, another character mentions that they could go to Maryland (like alphaboi867 stated), which didn’t have the requirements that other states did.
Could Guys and Dolls be one of the movies you were thinking of?
Nevada became famous for a state where people from wherever could quickly get married. No blood test, no waiting period, nothing.
It was also famous for allowing one-party no-fault divorce, which was nearly impossible in the rest of the USA.
Clark County, Nevada in my case. Groom from California, bride from Massachusetts.
Athena (post #9), did you actually have a marriage ceremony of some sort in the state that issued your marriage license?
Another requirement is usually that the celebrant (who signs the paperwork) be registered in the same state as the licence.