Do churches allow you to get married at church then have a court wedding?

Usually the church wedding is considered the legal ceremony as well, so there would be no need for the courthouse wedding after that.

The wedding in the church would be considered your legal wedding and there would be no need to go the courthouse. You can flip flop it and go to the courthouse to get legally married and then have a ceremony in the church after with the church blessing/recognizing your marriage.

I don't understand why you would want to do this, to be honest. Your other question seems to indicate that you do not want the legal ceremony to be on the same day as your religious ceremony? Regardless, the only way you'll be able to get married at the courthouse after your religious ceremony, is if you don't legally get married at your religious ceremony - in which case you'll be paying twice to get married - once in a non-legal religious service and once at the court. Why not just get legally married at your wedding?

Talk to the church you want to get married in. But my guess is that most would say no. But depending on your reasons and circumstances maybe you would find a church. But as everyone else said it doesn't make much sense.

View Quoted Comment Agreed. Most people outside of super rare situations (military weddings are not an exception in this case because they do have a choice) have the legal and religious ceremony all in one. Except those who are non religious but they still recognize the legal ceremony as *the main official* wedding and do not pass off a renewal a couple months down the road as their “real” one.


Which makes the new post-Covid trend of “let’s get married first privately in the courthouse and then have a big production later that we call the ‘real’ wedding and no one is allowed to be offended or confused by it” illogical and is highly disrespectful to people who consciously chose to have a courthouse or private wedding. The legal and religious ceremonies at separate times is common outside of the United States due to their unique legal systems so it is highly frowned upon out of confusion when it is done in the US. Why are people so opposed to having the legal ceremony be the main one? Because that is what guests care about more than anything.
Plus churches do not condone fraud or lying. And many people who do have a ceremony after the legal one pass the big redo off as the main ceremony. If the officiant/clergy asks for the license to allow them to perform the ceremony and to sign the certificate after which is legal proof that it occurred, they will be in for a shock and they (and non religious officiants) can and do lose their legal ability to perform weddings if they find out they were lied to.

Just because this is the new thing people are doing as a result of Covid does not make it acceptable or logical. It didn’t make any sense when people did it before claiming “we’re military” or “we chose it this way just because” and it doesn’t make any more sense from a post-apocalyptic perspective either.

I'm also wondering why you would want to do it this way. Is there a reason they need to be separate? And out of curiosity, which date would you consider your anniversary date?

This makes absolutely zero sense, do one or the other.

You either get married at the courthouse OR you get your marriage license and get married in the church. No need for both.

Legally, no you could not. Your priest/pastor is the ordained minister. You can't then go to a courthouse and have a second legal marriage perform, it would essentially be trying to enter a second marriage

First of all all your answers are so rude. Who cares if it makes 0 sense to you. They clearly have their reasons why they want to get married in the church first. It was just a question that needed to be answered. This person did not ask to be judged or criticized.