Marriage Certificate Question


rev.laura
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Hello, I recently married a couple and they decided that they wanted to take their wedding certificate to the CA courthouse themselves. I advised them that usually the officiant does this, but they insisted. Is this okay, or in CA does the officiant have to send it? Please advise.

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Hello, I recently married a couple and they decided that they wanted to take their wedding certificate to the CA courthouse themselves. I advised them that usually the officiant does this, but they insisted. Is this okay, or in CA does the officiant have to send it? Please advise.

Top of my head answer is, it is your legal responsibility to see that it gets there within the time frame required. Failure to do so could possible result in civil and/or criminal penalties (fine plus possibly jail time.) Who actually takes it there is of no consequence. Just make sure they did it.

If you need a quote from the law we can get it for you, or you can see it for yourself in the pinned topic, FAQ, Marriage Laws - US States.

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Hello, I recently married a couple and they decided that they wanted to take their wedding certificate to the CA courthouse themselves. I advised them that usually the officiant does this, but they insisted. Is this okay, or in CA does the officiant have to send it? Please advise.

hmm. well, depends of if you trust them, I guess. The law makes the officiant responsible. I can see where a couple could scam a minister in this fashion, if there were no witnesses the minister could rely upon, and say the minister failed to do their job, and bring legal action. This is a long shot, I should think, but possible.

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the last wedding i did in michigan,the couple offered to mail it in for me.i told them just give me the stamp and i'd be glad to do it.they gave me the stamp and a preaddressed envlope.it went in in plenty of time.

long story short,i believe the laws of all states require the officiant to return the requried documents to the proper place.if you trust someone else to do it,then go for it.me,i don't.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Although it would not be difficult to take the certificate to the courthouse in person, the members of our fledgling ministry

prefer to send the completed marriage license/certificate by mail with a return receipt. A certificate delivered in person might get shuffled under a stack of papers and forgotten. The same might happen to a mailed certificate, but at least we have a receipt that the mail was sent to the clerk.

My daughter, Rev. Cole, was recently married by a ULC minister. The completed certificate was mailed with the return receipt coming to the ministry. I believe that my daughter actually mailed her own certificate, but she was highly motivated to make sure that all the details were correct. However, the actual responsibility for the completed certificate rested with the officiating minister. Had my daughter not done things correctly, the other minister would have had to pay any penalties or damages.

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