We are now performing Wedding Ceremonies!
This
is not an endeavor I take lightly & neither should you. I have
spent many years contemplating this decision & I am finally ready,
myself!
Getting married is a decision that should be made with careful thought & consideration as such I will require a meeting between the two parties at least 1 week before the Ceremony. If there are children from a previous marriage or relationship it would be prudent to include them as well.
My "Goal" is not to just make a quick buck, file a form & be done with you, it is my hope that when times get hard as they most certainly will that you would consider me an ally, a friend & a confidant. I want you to be successful,
I have also made the
decision that I will not perform weddings for those underage even with
parental permission. If you were previously married I will need to see a
divorce decree, which you can get when you file for your marriage
license at the courthouse... You would be totally flabbergasted at how
many people think they are divorced that are not. So please remember to
bring your marriage license, 2 marriage certificates, 2 pieces of ID
& a divorce decree if it applies. I have included all the laws
governing marriage in this state so that you are aware of them as well
as the laws pertaining to my authority to perform your blessed union.
There are also instructions on all the paperwork needed as well in case
you need it.
At this point I only know of a good photographer, the caterer, the seamstresses, the Bridal store, the Tux shops, the florist we will work on finding for future use, & if you know of any of these folks with a good standing with the Better Business bureau please by all means let us know & we can list them here & refer them to prospective clients. We don't have a brick & mortar building at this point so I will be doing weddings at halls & private homes
PLEASE NOTE: Remember mercy, if you would like me to perform your wedding in a hot air balloon 10K feet up in the air you
might want to have a video camera on hand to send to America's Funniest
Home Videos for a segment of when the Minister faints or throws up you
might just win. If you want to get married up on Mt Rainier, we can do
that as long as I have solid ground under my feet!
So let's get started on this great adventure! (And I expect pictures of future & current children occasionally!)
When and Where The Marriage License Can Be Used To Get Married Washington State marriage licenses become valid for use on the third day following application and are then valid for 60 days. For example, if an application is made on Wednesday, the first day the marriage license can be used is Saturday and the last day it can be used is 60 days later.The wedding ceremony must take place within this period; if not, the couple will need to apply for a new marriage license. Under no circumstances can the three-day waiting period be waived. A marriage license purchased from any county in Washington State can be used to get married anywhere in Washington State. The permanent record of the marriage certificate will be recorded with the county from which the marriage license was purchased. Who Can Officiate (Perform) The Wedding Ceremony?
Within 30 days of the wedding ceremony, the officiant must return the completed Washington State Department of Health CertificateThe Wedding Ceremony
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Chapter 26.04 RCW Marriage
Certificates for out-of-state marriage license requirements: RCW 70.58.380.
The
department shall prescribe by rule a schedule of fees for providing
certificates necessary to meet marriage license requirements of other
states. The fees shall be predicated on the costs of conducting
premarital blood screening tests and issuing certificates.
26.04.010 Marriage contract — Void marriages.
(1)
Marriage is a civil contract between a male and a female who have each
attained the age of eighteen years, and who are otherwise capable.
(2) Every marriage entered into in which either the husband or the wife
has not attained the age of seventeen years is void except where this
section has been waived by a superior court judge of the county in which
one of the parties resides on a showing of necessity.
26.04.020 Prohibited marriages.
(1) Marriages in the following cases are prohibited:
(a) When either party thereto has a wife or husband living at the time of such marriage;
(b) When the husband and wife are nearer of kin to each other than
second cousins, whether of the whole or half blood computing by the
rules of the civil law; or
(c) When the parties are persons other than a male and a female.
(2) It is unlawful for any man to marry his father's sister, mother's
sister, daughter, sister, son's daughter, daughter's daughter, brother's
daughter or sister's daughter; it is unlawful for any woman to marry
her father's brother, mother's brother, son, brother, son's son,
daughter's son, brother's son or sister's son.
(3) A marriage
between two persons that is recognized as valid in another jurisdiction
is valid in this state only if the marriage is not prohibited or made
unlawful under subsection (1)(a), (1)(c), or (2) of this section.
Bigamy: RCW 9A.64.010.
Incest -- Penalties: RCW 9A.64.020.
26.04.050 Who may solemnize.
The
following named officers and persons, active or retired, are hereby
authorized to solemnize marriages, to wit: Justices of the supreme
court, judges of the court of appeals, judges of the superior courts,
supreme court commissioners, court of appeals commissioners, superior
court commissioners, any regularly licensed or ordained minister or any priest of any church or religious denomination, and judges of courts of limited jurisdiction as defined in RCW 3.02.010.
26.04.060 Marriage before unauthorized cleric — Effect.
A
marriage solemnized before any person professing to be a minister or a
priest of any religious denomination in this state or professing to be
an authorized officer thereof, is not void, nor shall the validity
thereof be in any way affected on account of any want of power or
authority in such person, if such marriage be consummated with a belief
on the part of the persons so married, or either of them, that they have
been lawfully joined in marriage.
26.04.070 Form of solemnization.
In
the solemnization of marriage no particular form is required, except
that the parties thereto shall assent or declare in the presence of the
minister, priest, or judicial officer solemnizing the same, and in the
presence of at least two attending witnesses, that they take each other
to be husband and wife.
26.04.080 Marriage certificate — Contents.
The
person solemnizing a marriage shall give to each of the parties
thereto, if required, a certificate thereof, specifying therein the
names and residence of the parties, and of at least two witnesses
present, the time and place of such marriage, and the date of the
license thereof, and by whom issued.
26.04.090 Certificate for files of county auditor and state registrar of vital statistics — Forms.
A
person solemnizing a marriage shall, within thirty days thereafter,
make and deliver to the county auditor of the county wherein the license
was issued a certificate for the files of the county auditor, and a
certificate for the files of the state registrar of vital statistics.
26.04.100 Filing and recording — County auditor.
The
county auditor shall file said certificates and record them or bind
them into numbered volumes, and note on the original index to the
license issued the volume and page wherein such certificate is recorded
or bound. He or she shall enter the date of filing and his or her name
on the certificates for the files of the state registrar of vital
statistics, and transmit, by the tenth day of each month, all such
certificates filed with him or her during the preceding month.
26.04.105 Preservation of copies of applications and licenses — County auditor.
The
county auditor may preserve copies of marriage license applications
submitted and marriage licenses issued under this chapter in the same
manner as authorized for the recording of instruments under RCW
65.04.040.
26.04.110 Penalty for failure to deliver certificates.
Any
person solemnizing a marriage, who shall wilfully refuse or neglect to
make and deliver to the county auditor for record, the certificates
mentioned in RCW 26.04.090, within the time in such section specified,
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall pay
for such refusal, or neglect, a fine of not less than twenty-five nor
more than three hundred dollars.
26.04.120 Marriage according to religious ritual.
All
marriages to which there are no legal impediments, solemnized before or
in any religious organization or congregation, according to the
established ritual or form commonly practiced therein, are valid, and a
certificate containing the particulars specified in RCW 26.04.080 and
26.04.090, shall be made and filed for record by the person or persons
presiding or officiating in or recording the proceedings of such
religious organization or congregation, in the manner and with like
effect as in ordinary cases.
26.04.130 Voidable marriages.
When
either party to a marriage shall be incapable of consenting thereto,
for want of legal age or a sufficient understanding, or when the consent
of either party shall be obtained by force or fraud, such marriage is
voidable, but only at the suit of the party laboring under the
disability, or upon whom the force or fraud is imposed.
26.04.140 Marriage license.
Before
any persons can be joined in marriage, they shall procure a license
from a county auditor, as provided in RCW 26.04.150 through 26.04.190.
26.04.150 Application for license — May be secured by mail — Execution and acknowledgment.
Any
person may secure by mail from the county auditor of the county in the
state of Washington where he or she intends to be married, an
application, and execute and acknowledge said application before a
notary public.
26.04.160 Application for license — Contents — Oath.
(1)
Application for a marriage license must be made and filed with the
appropriate county auditor upon blanks to be provided by the county
auditor for that purpose, which application shall be under the oath of
each of the applicants, and each application shall state the name,
address at the time of execution of application, age, social security
number, birthplace, whether single, widowed or divorced, and whether
under control of a guardian, residence during the past six months:
PROVIDED, That each county may require such other and further
information on said application as it shall deem necessary.
(2)
The county legislative authority may impose an additional fee up to
fifteen dollars on a marriage license for the purpose of funding family
services such as family support centers.
26.04.165 Additional marriage certificate form.
In
addition to the application provided for in RCW 26.04.160, the county
auditor for the county wherein the license is issued shall submit to
each applicant at the time for application for a license the Washington
state department of health marriage certificate form prescribed by *RCW
70.58.200 to be completed by the applicants and returned to the county
auditor for the files of the state registrar of vital statistics. After
the execution of the application for, and the issuance of a license, no
county shall require the persons authorized to solemnize marriages to
obtain any further information from the persons to be married except the
names and county of residence of the persons to be married.
26.04.170 Inspection of applications.
Any such application shall be open to public inspection as a part of the records of the office of such county auditor.
26.04.175 When disclosure of marriage applications and records prohibited.
If
a program participant under chapter 40.24 RCW notifies the appropriate
county auditor as required under rules adopted by the secretary of
state, the county auditor shall not make available for inspection or
copying the name and address of a program participant contained in
marriage applications and records filed under chapter 26.04 RCW, except
under the following circumstances:
(1) If requested by a law enforcement agency, to the law enforcement agency; and
(2) If directed by a court order, to a person identified in the order.
26.04.180 License — Time limitations as to issuance and use — Notification.
The
county auditor may issue the marriage license at the time of
application, but shall issue such license no later than the third full
day following the date of the application. A marriage license issued
pursuant to the provisions of this chapter may not be used until three
days after the date of application and shall become void if the marriage
is not solemnized within sixty days of the date of the issuance of the
license, and the county auditor shall notify the applicant in writing of
this requirement at the time of issuance of the license.
26.04.190 Refusal of license — Appeal.
Any
county auditor is hereby authorized to refuse to issue a license to
marry if, in his or her discretion, the applications executed by the
parties or information coming to his or her knowledge as a result of the
execution of said applications, justifies said refusal: PROVIDED,
HOWEVER, The denied parties may appeal to the superior court of said
county for an order to show cause, directed to said county auditor to
appear before said court to show why said court should not grant an
order to issue a license to said denied parties and, after due hearing,
or if the auditor fails to appear, said court may in its discretion,
issue an order to said auditor directing him or her to issue said
license; any hearings held by a superior court under RCW 26.04.140
through 26.04.200 may, in the discretion of said court, be held in
chambers.
26.04.200 Penalty for violations — 1939 c 204.
Any person intentionally violating any provision of RCW 26.04.140 through 26.04.190 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
26.04.210 Affidavits required for issuance of license — Penalties.
(1)
The county auditor, before a marriage license is issued, upon the
payment of a license fee as fixed in RCW 36.18.010 shall require each
applicant therefor to make and file in the auditor's office upon blanks
to be provided by the county for that purpose, an affidavit showing that
if an applicant is afflicted with any contagious sexually transmitted
disease, the condition is known to both applicants, and that the
applicants are the age of eighteen years or over. If the consent in
writing is obtained of the father, mother, or legal guardian of the
person for whom the license is required, the license may be granted in
cases where the female has attained the age of seventeen years or the
male has attained the age of seventeen years. Such affidavit may be
subscribed and sworn to before any person authorized to administer
oaths.
(2) Anyone knowingly swearing falsely to any of the
statements contained in the affidavits mentioned in this section is
guilty of perjury under chapter 9A.72 RCW.
(3) The affidavit
form shall be designed to require a statement that no contagious
sexually transmitted disease is present or that the condition is known
to both applicants, without requiring the applicants to state whether or
not either or both of them are afflicted by such disease.
(4)
Any person knowingly violating this section is guilty of a class C
felony and shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand
dollars, or by imprisonment in a state correctional facility for a
period of not more than three years, or by both such fine and
imprisonment.
26.04.220 Retention of license by person solemnizing — Auditor's record.
The
person solemnizing the marriage is authorized to retain in his or her
possession the license, but the county auditor who issues the same,
before delivering it, shall enter in his or her marriage record a
memorandum of the names of the parties, the consent of the parents or
guardian, if any, and the name of the affiant and the substance of the
affidavit upon which said license issued, and the date of such license.
26.04.240 Penalty for unlawful solemnization — Code 1881.
Any
person who shall undertake to join others in marriage knowing that he
or she is not lawfully authorized so to do, or any person authorized to
solemnize marriage, who shall join persons in marriage contrary to the
provisions of *this chapter, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished
by a fine of not more than five hundred, nor less than one hundred
dollars.
26.04.250 Penalty for unlawful solemnization — 1909 c 249.
Every
person who shall solemnize a marriage when either party thereto is
known to him or her to be under the age of legal consent or a marriage
to which, within his or her knowledge, any legal impediment exists,
shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor. Notes: Punishment of gross misdemeanor when not fixed by statute: RCW 9.92.020.
Businesses we can endorse through personal knowledge
1) Photographer: Angela Mulberg, at Silivirinwolf Studio's it is her artwork that is featured on our front page, the picture of my Schnauzer Soffia. She has done a bit of or photography for our rescues as well & she can bring out the beauty of our most pitiful little dogs so the world can see the true beauty inside of them.
Alternative's to marriage ceremonies I have been to a few weddings to learn & here is my list so far of people who had a very beautiful ceremony.
1) Judge Timothy O'Dell (at Everett Municipal Court) it was a very heartfelt ceremony, & I would say I had a very personal stake in this wedding since he is the one who married my son & my new daughter-in-law, both of whom I love very much. I was very impressed with everything overall. (Oh & you get a discount if you go on the weekdays!)