Kentucky bride and ULC minister question: UPDATE

Bump!

Http://www.themonastery.org/wedding-laws/kentucky

Keep calling the attorney general. Do not take anyone's word for this.

Thanks for the bump. I've already read the ULC website, and I know my DJ also is an officiant through the ULC and has married people in KY, but I feel like I'm not getting a straight answer anywhere. The laws seem really vague.

Thanks Celia! I'm calling again now.

EDIT: Thanks VM! I've been really frustrated with this. FH and I are athiests, and I asked a friend whose a pastor and she told me that her church won't let her marry us because of our lack of religion... and that most ministers around here won't marry us because of that as well. I had a hard time finding someone in my area who we felt comfortable with, and originally the person who was going to marry us came with the (first) venue. He was certified online through the ULC now that I think about it. I'm just going to keep calling the AG. If they won't answer me straight out, then I'll see if my great uncle who is a minister can stand at the alter and maybe he'll do the declaration of intent and sign with my officiant... My great uncle is older and has been sick, so I originally thought he wouldn't come to the wedding so we didn't ask him.

Basically what VMDizzle said.. you may not be able to get a straight answer, but the problem is if it's a problem you won't know about it until years later when someone challenges it for something like inheritance that could really affect you down the road when it's too late to fix.

I can run a quick search and see if there are any court decisions.

ETA: found a letter from the Kentucky AG from 1978. It says " the matter of who is a minister of the religious society is left wholly to the recognition of the particular denomination or organization.

The point is that these two statutes are not narrowly restricted to just the usual and historically established denominations or religious societies. A “religious society” in Kentucky is a broad term and includes any group organized and maintained for the support of public worship of God. The recognition of a minister can take the form of ordination or license or any other form which expresses clearly the fact that the religious group recognizes the person or looks to the person as a minister of that specific group."

@Kahlcara that would be so helpful! How would I run a search for marriage cases?

FH and I were half joking that we'd go the day before and get married just to solve this.

Worst case scenario, I ask my great uncle whose was a Methodist minister for years if he'll marry us. He's a recognized minister, went to a seminary, etc etc etc, so he definitely meets the state requirements. But it seems like half the officiants I see who specify that you don't have to be religious have been ordained through the Universal Life Church.

Side question: If we do decide to get married the day before, where can we find a JP (I asked at our county clerk and they don't do that there....)? Are there legal implications of having a civil ceremony the day before and then the one that we'll think of as being married in the eyes of our friends/family? Should we make an announcement to our guests if worst case we get married the day before? I just want to make sure we're legally married. I'm trying not to worry, but now that this granule of doubt has been put in my head that ULC might not be qualified in KY to marry us (even though everything I've read said it is)... I just want to confirm one way or another! lol.

It doesn't look like there are any Kentucky cases. So on the plus side, even if it's not valid, it's probably not likely that anyone would challenge it, I guess.

I just ran a bunch of stuff through Westlaw Next. "valid marriage officiant" "universal life marriage", specifically searching Kentucky decisions. I have access through school, but buying an individual subscription is prohibitively expensive. If there are any cases, they should be in there. Kentucky might also have public access to court decisions on a .gov site, but I'm not sure.

If the AG has a website, it's possible they've issued more recent guidance on this (since the 1978 letter I found). There are published letters about various things, but there are thousands of them and I don't have time to go through them all.

Thank you @Kahlcara.

Just want to update. I called a few more times and finally got through to this really nice lady at the AG. She tried to tell me to go to the county clerk, but I explained that they wouldn't give me a straight answer and that they had given me the AG's phone #. So I explained that my friend was ordained through the ULC which is an online ordination, and I said "if he is an ordained minister of the ULC, will my marriage be recorded, legal, and valid?" She said "Yes. He can marry you. Your marriage will be valid."

Hallelujah!

Yippee!

Thanks Celia! I'm so glad we'll be legally married!