Ok, so there's a serious situation with FH's business right now...I really need to be legally married like ASAP to help him & unfortunately this can't wait till our July wedding date. If I have a civil ceremony will the priest still be able to marry us in the church? We'd already be legally married by the state and I'm pretty sure the church isn't going to be happy about that. Has anyone been in this situation? TIA!
I would talk to your priest first - he probably wouldn't call it a wedding ceremony, but it would be more of a blessing.
Posted by DWKSwed
There is a couple in our pre-cana group that is married legally and they are having what the church is calling a 'validation of marriage'.
A dishonest but perhaps do-able thing you could do: You could get a marriage license at the 60 day mark, hold onto it, then go get another license and get married civilly at the courthouse and then just turn in the original marriage license to the priest for the wedding. You may get caught after the fact but I'm not sure. And it's being dishonest with the church... but I just thought of it because it's a way to do it. You would have to ask the clerk in the marriage license office what would happen with the second license/certificate after the church wedding. You would need to wait until 2 months before to get married (so like May 18th-ish).
they will do a blessing of your marriage probably. they can still do a ceremony.
Posted by MrsS2be
Posted by DWKSwed
There is a couple in our pre-cana group that is married legally and they are having what the church is calling a 'validation of marriage'.
A dishonest but perhaps do-able thing you could do: You could get a marriage license at the 60 day mark, hold onto it, then go get another license and get married civilly at the courthouse and then just turn in the original marriage license to the priest for the wedding. You may get caught after the fact but I'm not sure. And it's being dishonest with the church... but I just thought of it because it's a way to do it. You would have to ask the clerk in the marriage license office what would happen with the second license/certificate after the church wedding. You would need to wait until 2 months before to get married (so like May 18th-ish).
Thanks so much for your help! So the church only accepts a marriage license if it's dated within 60 days of the church wedding date?
You can still do something... you basically get your marriage made valid in the eyes of the church.
Posted by DWKSwed
Posted by MrsS2be
Posted by DWKSwed
There is a couple in our pre-cana group that is married legally and they are having what the church is calling a 'validation of marriage'.
A dishonest but perhaps do-able thing you could do: You could get a marriage license at the 60 day mark, hold onto it, then go get another license and get married civilly at the courthouse and then just turn in the original marriage license to the priest for the wedding. You may get caught after the fact but I'm not sure. And it's being dishonest with the church... but I just thought of it because it's a way to do it. You would have to ask the clerk in the marriage license office what would happen with the second license/certificate after the church wedding. You would need to wait until 2 months before to get married (so like May 18th-ish).
Thanks so much for your help! So the church only accepts a marriage license if it's dated within 60 days of the church wedding date?
No, the reason I suggested that is that you can only get a civil marriage license within 60 days of the wedding. From what I understand, once you get a marriage license and have the civil ceremony, I don't think you'll be able to get another marriage license because when they do the background check to see if you are already married it will come up that you're married. You can get a second license - like, if you lost it or something and needed a new one - before you get married, as long as it doesn't pop up in their computer that you're married (which it wouldn't). All the church needs is the civil marriage license... so I would assume that could work if you save the original.
The only way I can see this backfiring is if the civil ceremony officiant processes the marriage issues the certificate, and then if the priest sends in the signed license/cert and it goes back to the state and it gets returned to him or something like, unable to process... but I'm not sure if that would happen anyway. I would do a little covert research to see what would happen after the priest sends it back if its like, a duplicate ceremony.
ETA: The reason you would need to wait until 2 months before to have the civil marriage is because you would need to get both licenses within that 60 day period and then wait 24 hours after the second license to hold the ceremony.
