How does a marriage license work?
I know it seems stupid, but I have no idea how this works. Are you married once you get the license (even though it's before the wedding)? Or are you married once you sign it?
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In Illinois you have to get the license at least 48 hours before the wedding is performed. The minister, priest or whoever will sign the license, you and your husband will sign the license as will the best man and maid of honor. Then it will be filed at the courthouse and you are married; you are married the day it's signed because it's usually not filed for several days after the ceremony has been preformed.
No, the marriage license doesn't mean that you're married. The marriage license just means that you have permission from the state to marry.
There is usually a waiting period of a few days before you can hold the ceremony.
Then the officiant signs the license along with witnesses and the newlyweds, and that paper is filed with the courthouse of the county in which the ceremony is performed. You keep a marriage certificate that contains the same information as the marriage license (in some states there is no separate marriage certificate).
THEN you are married.
You apply for a license in person at your local town hall or city hall (in the state you will be married in). Then you wait a few days for the license to be typed up. Then you go get the license (YOU ARE NOT MARRIED YET) and give it to the priest/JP. Then they perform the ceremony and you sign it and the JP signs it and then the JP mails it to the town/city hall that it came from.
Once the town/city hall enters it into official record THEN you are legally married. After the ceremony people considered you married. But you arent until city/town hall puts it into record.
Go to your local court house, where you are to be married, and take two (2) forms of id: Usually Soc Sec card and Drivers lic are accepted....you have to have 2 forms of ID.
Then you get married and the Pastor, Rev, Justice will sign and date it....YOU ARE THEN LEGALLY MARRIED. He will give you a copy and file the other copy with the courts where you got the document.
YOU ARE ACTUALLY MARRIED ONCE YOU SAY I DO AT THE WEDDING.
I just got married June 13th, 2009 for the 3rd time and I know this process very well. Good luck. This was a good question for a novice.