Marriage license months before wedding day

Marriage license is typically good for 30 days only and you would need an officiant or someone ordained to sign off on it if your wanting to do it that way ur best bet is to go to the county clerks and have them do the wedding ceremony

Do you mean just get the marriage license or actually legally get married and have the officiant sign it? In most states the marriage license is good for 30 days and you would need to have your ceremony in that time frame. If you’re getting legally married, you should let your guests know instead of letting them believe that they’re there for a wedding when it’s actually a vow renewal.

Getting the marriage license doesn’t make you legally married. You would need an officiant to perform the ceremony and sign the license with a witness and then you would file it. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that except for people who have had destination weddings and can’t legally get married in another country.

You'd have to check the laws where you are getting married.

Some states (like NY), give you 30 days. Some give you less, some give you more.

But you can't do it months and months ahead of time. It's not like a driver's license.

As others have stated, the license is only good for a month, or two in some states. It will still need to be signed AND returned by a licensed officiant or a person legally authorized to perform the ceremony within a certain amount of time to be recorded.

I also don't think you should get it the day before your wedding, maybe give yourself some time in between for Lee way

It’s not just filing paperwork, to “file the license” you’d need to get it, have a legal wedding ceremony with officiant who would sign and return it. That’s your ceremony. It’s certainly not the norm but I’ve seen it done in some extenuating circumstances (military, insurance, etc), but I’m not sure what advantages “going ahead and getting everything changed” offers. If you do get married legally before the big wedding party, be sure to be honest with your guests about it.

if you’re just talking about *applying* for the license, you can do that any time your state allows (our license was good for 60 days , so we got it 50 some odd days before our wedding), but that won’t really give you a head start on anything — you need the marriage certificate for name change, etc

Agree with PPs, just chiming in to say that the 30-day rule REALLY varies. In Washington DC, the marriage license never expires - you can go get it months and months before the wedding and just hang onto it. Then when the officiant signs it on the wedding day, it becomes valid and needs to be turned back in within 10 days. So definitely check your state’s requirements (the state where you’re getting married, not your state of residency). We did go get our license a few months before the wedding just to get that part out of the way.

But you can’t use the marriage license to change your name, change insurance policies, etc until it’s been signed by the officiant on your wedding day (you’ll get certified copies from your state’s marriage bureau).

I filed for mine months before, it is good for 6 months in Maryland. However, it doesnt change anything, i just need id be out that way lol

In Michigan, we only have 30 days to have a ceremony once we apply for the marriage license. Like others have stated, your officiant would have to sign it and file it before you could do any legal changes with it (if I'm understanding you correctly).