Wedding Blog

… and we don’t even have a cheesy picture to show for it. Because I forgot to take one. Sorry!

I wasn’t even going to blog about this event, since it was so… anticlimactic. But I really don’t have anything else to share at the moment, so why not?

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I knew exactly what we needed to do to get our license: bring our IDs and my paperwork from my previous marriage down to the county records office, pay our money, and fill out our form with our names, addresses, parents’ information, and wedding information.

We arrived at the courthouse, inside which the records office is located and walked up to the security guard to be wanded for weapons. He said “Where are you going?” to which I replied “Records office?” He looked at me funny.

I said “Deputy clerk?” Still looking at me… “We need a marriage license.”

“You’re in the wrong building.” Oh, ok.

We were supposed to be across the street at a special office that is specifically there for tax issues, passport applications, and marriage licenses. Oops. We jogged over there and stood in line behind a lady who was trying to figure out some kind of tax problem with her uninhabitable mobile home, which she was trying to sell.

When we got up to the counter, the gal took our licenses and typed the information in to the computer. She didn’t ask us anything about our parents or our jobs, or anything else. Just birthdays, social security numbers, and addresses. She took my divorce decree from me also. She asked if we were related to each other, then checked the “No” box when we’d answered.

She printed out the form and had us look it over and sign it. We had to sign our first, middle and last names, which was weird. We had to do that with our house purchase, also. So our signatures look like we each signed our first and last names, and someone else scribbled our middles in later. Because seriously: how often do you sign your full middle name? I rarely ever do, and so it looks and feels unnatural.

She asked me if I’d be changing my name, and I said “Yes.” So she gave me some advice about which agency to start with (in our state, you start at the DMV).

The entire process took under 10 minutes, and we received a packet containing three copies of the license, an instructions sheet on what to do with each copy (two get returned to the county, one is a souvenir), and a card about taking folic acid now for the health of our “future baby”.

It feels good to have our license. It makes it that much more real. But speaking of real, it says:

Groom: Mr. Mary Jane, who has not been married.
to
Bride: Miss Mary Jane, who has been divorced.

Romantic. Don’t think that’s going in a frame or the scrapbook.

But that’s real. And once the name changing paperwork’s complete, I suppose we’ll tuck it away and never look at it again.

Was your marriage license process as anticlimactic as ours? What are you going to do with your “souvenir copy”, if you got one?