How soon after the wedding do you get the certificate??

[Hudson_Hawk]

Anyone know? We got married on 7/5 and DH is bugging me about when the certificate is going to arrive. I don''t even know if we get an actual certificate automatically of if we have to order/pick one up from city hall. Does anyone know??? I realize it''s probably different from city to city, but I thought I''d ask and christen the new board

 

[cammy85]

In MD they said it would take a couple weeks most likely (though my mom took it directly to them to have it registered so that we could have it when we came back from the honeymoon).

Hope you get it soon!

ETA: I didn't answer part of your question. In MD, the pastors mail the certificate in to the registrars office, they register it, certify and notarize it and mail it to you. That's what they do here at least. Which is why it takes a couple of weeks.

 

[iwannaprettyone]

We actually took our stuff to city hall and they processed it while we waited.

 

[jjdav]

Date: 7/20/2009 2:03:46 PM
Author: iwannaprettyone
We actually took our stuff to city hall and they processed it while we waited.

This might be the best way, I live in LA but got married in Chicago and it''s been bit of a pain to get the certificate from the County Clerk''s office.

 

[Lilac]

I got ours about 2 weeks after our wedding.

 

[dcgator]

When we applied for our marriage license we paid for however many copies we wanted of our marriage license. We had the requested number of copied in about two weeks. We got married in FL but actually live in the DC area. I thought it was really quick though, b/c they said it could take up to 4 weeks.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

We had to pick ours up at City Hall (we just used Boston''s since we both work downtown). I think you have to pick it up at the same City Hall where you applied for your ML, but I''m not positive.

I have a copy here in my bag, let me see...we were married on Sept. 28th and picked this copy up on Oct. 11th, though I see that the paperwork was filed on October 3rd. I think that your officiant mails in the copy of your ML to whichever City Hall you applied and once it''s filed, you can pick it up anytime--I think our officiant told us to wait a week or two just to make sure. I also have a receipt for a cashier''s check, which makes me think that''s the only form of payment they would take, otherwise I wouldn''t have paid that way

 

[LadyBlue]

Around 3 weeks =P

 

[CNOS128]

I started to worry after about 2 weeks, so I visited the Marriage Bureau (we''re in NY) -- and they told me it would be 4 - 6 weeks! We got the certificate exactly 5 weeks after the wedding. Then we got started changing my name everywhere... argh!!

 

[geckodani]

It took about a month (maybe a little longer) to get ours. But they had to mail them from Hawaii to Michigan, LOL.

 

[musincy]

So, if it takes up to a month to receive the certificate, and jobs only give you 30 days from the marriage date to change your insurance stuff, etc, do you not need the certified copy to do that?

 

[sweetjettagirl04]

Date: 7/20/2009 1:55:30 PM
Author: cammy85
In MD they said it would take a couple weeks most likely (though my mom took it directly to them to have it registered so that we could have it when we came back from the honeymoon).

Hope you get it soon!

ETA: I didn''t answer part of your question. In MD, the pastors mail the certificate in to the registrars office, they register it, certify and notarize it and mail it to you. That''s what they do here at least. Which is why it takes a couple of weeks.

Our pastor mailed everything, but left the marriage certificate for us that same day. We''re in MD, and we don''t actually get a certificate back - maybe it depends on the county? I''ve had the license in my posession since the day we got married, and it''s going on two months - I didn''t think to expect anything in the mail.

 

[cammy85]

Date: 7/20/2009 3:49:37 PM
Author: sweetjettagirl04

Date: 7/20/2009 1:55:30 PM
Author: cammy85
In MD they said it would take a couple weeks most likely (though my mom took it directly to them to have it registered so that we could have it when we came back from the honeymoon).

Hope you get it soon!

ETA: I didn't answer part of your question. In MD, the pastors mail the certificate in to the registrars office, they register it, certify and notarize it and mail it to you. That's what they do here at least. Which is why it takes a couple of weeks.

Our pastor mailed everything, but left the marriage certificate for us that same day. We're in MD, and we don't actually get a certificate back - maybe it depends on the county? I've had the license in my posession since the day we got married, and it's going on two months - I didn't think to expect anything in the mail.

The marriage license has to be on record in the circuit court of our county (Baltimore) so as far as I know our marriage license became our marriage certificate once we took it to the circuit court to have it registered and have the county seal put on. We also had a few certified copies made as well. It may depend on the county, but for us, for the marriage to be 'valid' so-to-speak we had to take the license with the signatures on it to the circuit court. Otherwise the pastors would have mailed it in, and the license would have been sealed, registered and mailed back to us.

Edited to fix spelling. Yikes.

 

[MonkeyPie]

I actually got mine the same day - call the office you filed it with and they should give you a time frame!

 

[sweetjettagirl04]

Date: 7/20/2009 3:57:10 PM
Author: cammy85

Date: 7/20/2009 3:49:37 PM
Author: sweetjettagirl04

Date: 7/20/2009 1:55:30 PM
Author: cammy85
In MD they said it would take a couple weeks most likely (though my mom took it directly to them to have it registered so that we could have it when we came back from the honeymoon).

Hope you get it soon!

ETA: I didn''t answer part of your question. In MD, the pastors mail the certificate in to the registrars office, they register it, certify and notarize it and mail it to you. That''s what they do here at least. Which is why it takes a couple of weeks.

Our pastor mailed everything, but left the marriage certificate for us that same day. We''re in MD, and we don''t actually get a certificate back - maybe it depends on the county? I''ve had the license in my posession since the day we got married, and it''s going on two months - I didn''t think to expect anything in the mail.

The marriage license has to be on record in the circuit court of our county (Baltimore) so as far as I know our marriage license became our marriage certificate once we took it to the circuit court to have it registered and have the county seal put on. We also had a few certified copies made as well. It may depend on the county, but for us, for the marriage to be ''valid'' so-to-speak we had to take the license with the signatures on it to the circuit court. Otherwise the pastors would have mailed it in, and the license would have been sealed, registered and mailed back to us.

Edited to fix spelling. Yikes.

I guess it does depend on the county then. Ours is from Frederick Co. and they don''t require signatures on it, our pastor actually gave us a certificate to "sign" for the purpose of pictures, nothing more. Quite interesting how it can vary in the same state!

 

[cakeny]

I got the certificate in the mail about 3 weeks after the wedding (married in NY). We had just gotten back from our honeymoon several days before we received it, so it felt really fast!

 

[cammy85]

Date: 7/20/2009 4:19:15 PM
Author: sweetjettagirl04
I guess it does depend on the county then. Ours is from Frederick Co. and they don''t require signatures on it, our pastor actually gave us a certificate to ''sign'' for the purpose of pictures, nothing more. Quite interesting how it can vary in the same state!

Wow, that''s too funny. I didn''t even realize ours was signed until the reception. Apparently the bride and groom don''t even sign it, the pastors do and the county clerk. At the reception I was like - wait! We didn''t sign it, we need witnesses! And i pulled it out of the envelope and there wasn''t even a place for us to sign! I thought everywhere that the marriage license would be signed by the bride, groom and witnesses. Apparently not here. At least it wasn''t an oversight on my part (though I wouldn''t mind planning another wedding - tee hee hee SO much fun!)

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Mine was already there when we got back from the honeymoon (so it was there by the next Friday)..but our friends didn't get theirs for weeks so I guess it also depends on county and not just state?

 

[CNOS128]

I wonder if it depends on the time of year -- there are definitely more late spring/early summer weddings than winter ones around here! I''d bet certificates come faster in colder months.

 

[musey]

Oh gosh I wish I could remember... less than a month, I think it was waiting in our held mail when we returned from the honeymoon (3 weeks after the wedding day), or at least arrived soon after.

I do remember that in the paperwork we filled out we had to order one (actually, we ordered two...), it wasn't just automatically sent to us. I think.

 

[IluvEmeralds]

Ours was waiting for us when we returned from our honeymoon. We live in N.FL and got married in Key West...so I guess it didn''t have to go through too much red tape.


ILE

 

[Patchee]

9 Days we got ours!!! Just came yesterday! It is mailed from your Town or City of marriage.

 

[Clairitek]

Mmm... I wonder if ours is sitting at my parent''s house in RI since that was the address we gave them? I had to use my parent''s address so I could get one from my hometown. Otherwise, there was more paperwork involved. Since my parent''s address is still on my license it was just fine.


... I should call them about that!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Claire, my officiant said we had to pick it up at city hall, they won''t mail it. That''s how it is in Warwick anyway, not sure about Mtown...

 

[newsboysgrl777]

It's interesting that every state/jurisdiction is different. (I wonder if it's different county-to-county within the same state?) Our marriage cert came* either while we were on our honeymoon, or just after it, because we got it very quickly. I'm not sure if it's because it was a smaller town where we got our license from or what, but for NY, I'm impressed with the speed! (We got married 7/3 and we had ours by 7/18 at the latest).


*It was mailed to us directly. We had 2 copies of the signed license given to us the day of the wedding by our pastor, but he mailed in the original and then the county(?) mails us our certificate.

ETA: Also wanted to add that we did the signing of the license when we got it from the county clerk's office, so there was nothing for us to sign on our wedding day. It makes sense because they want to be sure you're actually who is going to be getting married and you are who you say you are (thus the signing in person before the clerk)

 

[CaliCushion]

It depends entirely on where you live. In Los Angeles county, it took 2 months. We were allowed to have copies sent to us or go to pick them up. However, there''s a huge line at the office to pick them up here.