My FH and I scheduled a courthouse wedding next Thursday. Our wedding reception won't be until the 28th though ( 9 days after). Long story short, we are both semi-buddhist so we won't be having a pastor for our wedding. A little over a month ago we looked into if it was as simple to just get a marriage certificate at the court and then we would be officially married on paper (cuz there's no purpose of having a ceremony if you aren't officially married by the end of the day lol). Ended up finding out the wedding license we get from the courthouse is just permission to get married and we needed someone official to sign our wedding license. This could be done by a judge, justice of peace or an officiant (our friends did this). But we felt bad asking our friends to pay for a officiant license so we looked into our options and found out that the courthouse would only charge $28 to have a courthouse wedding there and someone who can officially sign the marriage license.
I was wondering what to expect? We do not have the marriage paper that gives us "permission" to marry yet but it seems like the courthouse we will have the ceremony at issues the license/certificate (we will be having it at Laguna Hills Civic Center in CA), Would we need to go to a different area to pick up the paper before heading to the room where we will be having the ceremony? Or will the person conducting the ceremony have it with them?
Also, would the court ask us to exchange rings or have us recite vows (whether its their own written ones made by the courthouse or ours)?
I have been busy the past 2 months with wedding planning, work and my grandma passing away so I haven't had time to finish my vows 
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I know I can call the courthouse to confirm but sometimes its tough trying to reach the right person to ask about info. I was wondering if anyone can share their experience with courthouse weddings.
