Marriage License Process

This process is totally different depending on where you are located! I'd recommend calling your town's department of health office and they will be able to explain what you need to do!

We are in NJ, our process was that we applied a little over 2 weeks before the wedding, and we were able to pick it up 72 hours later (NJ has a waiting period, but not all states do). The license expired 1 month from when we picked it up. Some states I believe it's 60 days though. You'd really have to check your state's laws!

View Quoted Comment Ok great. I am in NJ as well and I was on the website and got a bit confused. Thank You for clarifying that for me!

View Quoted Comment

Oh cool if you're in NJ then I guess what we did would be the same for you! Glad that helped For us they recommended applying between 2 and 3 weeks before the wedding.

Hi Tiffany!

As Gen mentioned, this is completely different and changes by state!

Check out this article from the WeddingWire ideas section for more info on the application In New Jersey - Marriage Laws by State. It has more details on what you will need to bring with you, how many witnesses, etc.

FH and I just applied on May 29th (yesterday) in East Rutherford with my mom as our witness. We will be able to pick up the license to wed and some documents for our rabbi in 72 hours from the time our application was submitted. We will be married in Springfield on June 23rd.

I believe the license is good for six months in New Jersey. I highly recommend that you and your partner both bring your birth certificates. The clerk will need to know your parents' full names as they were given at their births and that information can be found on your birth certificates. I brought mine just in case it was needed. FH did not and he couldn't remember his mother's maiden middle name. He was able to call her for it, but my mom jokingly asked him, "how do you not know your mother's middle name?" They will also ask where your parents were born. My mom mistakenly said that my dad was born in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, but I corrected her because I thought he had told me years ago that he was born in New York. I checked my birth certificate and sure enough, it said that my father was born in New York.

*A birth certificate was not a required document (the clerk didn't ask for it and didn't photocopy it), but it was very helpful to have mine on hand.
*Our photo IDs were his driver's license and my passport. My driver's license doesn't have my current address printed on it, even though I submitted a change of address two years ago. They do that in digital form now, so I didn't use that as proof of residency. I brought a bank statement just in case.