For those of you who have had/are planning a Courthouse wedding before your ceremony.

You have to bring a witness with you.

It can take all day.

You can dress up or be casual.

You should do something small with your FH like go out to a special restaurant, have a picnic or smthn.

Congrats! I hope you get the answers you need (and I will need next year, so I'm watching this one!) and not just pages of unnecessary comments that have nothing to do with your questions.

I agree with everything Shamika said, except a quick phone call to the courthouse will tell you how long to expect to be there. I'd bet you want to have an appointment. Us government workers are union and like our lunch breaks, so you'll either be out of there by noon or 4:30 depending on when you start

I can't help you with details like how long will it take, but two of my brothers did this. One got married at the courthouse a year before the church ceremony, mostly due to financial reasons. The other married a Russian girl (not a mail-order bride, mind you) and rather than have her sit in Russia until he had the funds for a church wedding and reception, they had a courthouse wedding first.

But anyway, brother #1 and his bride got sort of dressed up. I don't remember what he wore, but she wore a cute black and white cocktail dress. Several family members went with them, too, and it was quite crowded! The hadn't planned to do anything special afterwards, since they were planning to have a full wedding in a year, but my parents really wanted to do something, so they took the immediate family members on both sides out to dinner at a nice restaurant. They had a sheet cake made up for the occasion as well.

Brother #2 and his wife just went as they were to the courthouse, and I'm not really sure who went with them, probably just their witnesses. That night they went to dinner with just my parents at the casino, which is where they spent their "honeymoon" for the weekend. They had a big honeymoon after the church wedding several months later, too.

So I guess it depends on what you feel like Neither of my brothers really wanted to celebrate, but I'm sure brother #1 was glad everyone got together for dinner that night.

On a side note, I'm glad other people are being normal about this situation. I once saw a post elsewhere relating to a courthouse wedding followed by a church wedding and reception at a later date, and people just ripped the poor bride apart because they thought the idea was "disgusting" and "selfish."

Yay for a Disney wedding!!! DH and I got engaged there too.

We did a courthouse legal ceremony 2 days before our wedding. We live in FL about 25 minutes from the GA line, but our venue was in GA and we a) wanted to be married under the laws of our home state, and b) wanted my SIL to officiate and she couldn't legally do that in GA.

So we applied for our license and got the info on th4e civil ceremony while we were there. Every county probably runs things differently so you may need to check with the clerk's office for specifics but this is how it went in Tallahassee FL:

We applied for our license 4 days before we wanted to do there ceremony since there is a 3 day waiting period in FL. We just had to bring ID's, fill out a simple form, and pay. There was no one in line so we were in and out in 15 mins. We made an appt for our ceremony while we were there.

We came for our appt a few days later and brought two witnesses to sign the marriage license. If you don't bring your own you get random employees. The same woman who helped us apply for the license performed the 2 minute ceremony. They had a special room for it, and a faux flower bouquet they offered for me to hold. I went in jeans since I was off work that day and DH was in a suit for work.The whole thing took 20 minutes. We were in and out like that and DH went back to work, lol.

For us, it was just the legal process so we didn't do anything special or wear anything special for it since we were having our wedding 2 days later. We consider the day of our wedding our anniversary, not the day we did the legal thing at the courthouse.

@ Linda...

In France, a courthouse wedding, church wedding, and reception are normal!

Because of their laws of separation of church and state in France, marriages performed by clergy are not legally recognized. So most French people who get married HAVE to have a civil ceremony and then a separate church ceremony if they want to be married in the eyes of their religion.

My FH and I are doing the same thing. I also have a question: since we will be legally married at the courthouse, do we need a legal officiant to "wed" us on our wedding ceremony date?

Thank you everyone for all of the helpful advice. And @Abby I am glad to know that it did not take away from the actual wedding. That was one thing I keep seeing from people who haven't done it. I am so emotional I will be a mess on the day of the ceremony regardless. I think I am just going to wear a nice knee length dress. I would rather have witnesses we know, the only issue is that we wanted to wait until after FSIL's wedding to tell people. I will have to think about that. I wonder if I should bring my own flowers lol. I would probably get some weird looks. I have one more question, I heard somewhere that you can not get a marriage license if you drivers license does not have the correct address on it, is that true?

This is different in every state except for the fact that you will be actually married on that day and no, it doesn't take away from the big wedding

In many states, you apply and then there is a waiting period, so you can't just walk in, get the license and get married. Call your courthouse and ask before you make plans. Every state requires different preparation, and you don't want to do it twice. In some states, (like NJ), most courts don't even do weddings any more, so that's important to find out.

We do upwards of 70 elopements a year. Some people dress up; some don't. Most bring witnesses they know, though some have used our 'rented' witnesses since the people who SEE the wedding don't have to know you (the witness to GET the license does). Most who are having a bigger celebration later make this one as non-weddingy as possible; no dresses, no rings, no nothing. But I do recommend telling your parents.

I can't imagine this taking all day, but it may not get accomplished in one day. I can only speak for NJ, but seriously, every state is different, so you need to find the government site for weddings in your state and go from there.

If you are legally married at the courthouse or by a notary, no, you don't need a legal officiant on the day.

1) In Massachusetts, it takes a 3-day waiting period between going down to Town Hall and registering and actually picking up the license. Then you get a justice of the peace to marry you anywhere you want (we just had it in our living room).

2) We didn't need witnesses but we had both sets of parents there, my brother, sister-in-law, and SIL's husband

3) I wore a white and black cocktail dress

4) We all went out to a seafood restaurant afterward just to have some dinner

I will have to look into NY's rules. Thanks everyone for being so helpful.

Check with your state, some require a witness or 2 others don't. Wear what you want and go to a nice dinner afterwards.

I just looked online. It said that there is a 24 hour waiting period, and at least one witness. Glad I looked!

It actually depends on where u live at. I got married back in 2010. We didnt have to have no witnesses. But i did have my sister and her girl there bec they wanted to be. It didnt take long either. We made it when they went on break for an hour. We was the first ones when they started back up. It took like ten minutes for the actual ceremony.

We will be renewing our vowels next year for our fifth. This time we will do it the way we wanted. Also have our kids there to enjoy the day with us. Along with family and friends. I dont regret going to the courthouse bec i still got married to my wonderful husband.

Its just that at that time we couldnt afford a wedding. Also we had some other issues but now things is looking up bec his kids will be able to join us as well.

And for what i wore... Just something comfortable. I had on a nice shirt with some beige capris it was hot outside. It was in the middle of july.

Any bets on how long it's going to take for Michelle come out of the woodwork to spout off ridiculous etiquette rules on this thread?

She's going to have to do so many public record checks over the next year!!

I was just going to message Michelle to inform her,and save her the time =)

I care about my family and friends enough to include them in my celebration. I don't want my grandmother sitting and crying at home because I refused to have a wedding celebration because of what some idiot said online .........

The reception is all about celebrating with your family! I haven't had a chance to do that yet! God, some people are so dense.

I guess I'm a special snowflake! haha

We did a courthouse wedding with my first marriage. We had a clerk be a witness and our photographer be the witness for us. We were military and three states away from family. It only took an hour or two. We were put on a list to see the JOP and after we got the paperwork started, we just left and came back when it was our time. So not long at all. We went out and had a nice dinner afterwards just to celebrate by ourselves.

And just from personal experience, don't let anyone bring you down for having a ceremony after the courthouse wedding. If someone thinks it's tacky then they don't have to come. For financial reasons, my current FH and I are considering doing just that. We are both in a higher tax bracket and about half my income goes to spousal support to my ex. Once I get married, that support order is dissolved and FH and I can use that money towards a ceremony. We also have two kids to think about and it would be easier if we could get everyone on ONE insurance plan and everything prior to our ceremony next year.

Just do what YOU want. Who cares about it being taboo at this point?