# Quick Marriage

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-marriage/135693>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 7, 2002, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-marriage/135693 "2002-11-07T12:28:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-marriage/135693/1 "2002-11-07T12:28:56Z")

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What’s involved in a quick marriage? I’m in VA and I was wondering if, at the spur of the moment me and my fiance’ decided to get married-right now, how would we go about doing that?  
I don’t actually know much about getting married; I think I have to go to the government center and get a marriage certificate, but beyond that, I don’t know…

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**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-marriage/135693/2 "2002-11-07T12:51:37Z")

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I got married in VA, six years ago. All we had to do was go to the Henrico County Clerk’s office get the certificate (I think we just needed our birth certificates, you should find out before you go,) find someone liscensed to do marriages, and have the ceremony. That’s it!

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-marriage/135693/3 "2002-11-07T13:41:34Z")

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I got married in NH which does require a (IIRC) 3 day waiting period. The actuall ceromony was about 5 lines - over very quick and didn’t take up much of the ski day 😉

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-marriage/135693/4 "2002-11-07T13:51:50Z")

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You could go to Nevada and get one _really_ quick.

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**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-marriage/135693/5 "2002-11-07T15:07:57Z")

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I got married in Orlando, at the Orange county courthouse.  
No waiting period. All we needed was a birth cert. and a form of ID. They even threw in a witness for free. The whole thing took about an hour and a half but only because there were people in front of us.  
Paper work and the ceremony itself was maybe an hour total.

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**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-marriage/135693/6 "2002-11-07T15:51:34Z")

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I worked with a guy who got married at a drive-through chapel in Las Vegas. (They did plan it in advance.)

“Do you take this woman? … Would you like fries with that?”

😃