I am a first-generation Chinese American, born in China, raised in the US. I do not belong to a church or any religious organization. My parents planned for the wedding day, which occurred at the government office for official paperwork. They got their marriage certificate/license in China. Then they ate with family and friends to celebrate the big moment. No mention of a ceremony. No mention of a wedding officiant. No mention of wedding vows. No wedding rings. This was still the Reform era in China, and Chinese people didn’t know western cultures that well. Hearing this, I have no idea how to act in the US.
Would I just go to the Justice of the Peace for a wedding and marriage certificate, then do whatever I want afterwards?
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Justice of the Peace is not affiliated with religion. It is a civic position.
People can get married by the Justice of he Peace. You just go (not sure if you have to make an appointment ahead of time; might depend how busy the city offices are; probably best if you did), and you will need two people who will sign as witnessing the union.
Yeah that’s basically just a courthouse wedding. Vows might be said but I’m not sure it’s a requirement.
Basically yes. You stand in front of them, with 2 witnesses (they might be able to help provide those), take vows and they pronounce you married. You sign some stuff and then go live life as a married couple.
> Would I just go to the Justice of the Peace for a wedding and marriage certificate, then do whatever I want afterwards?
I know someone who got married that way. I will try to find out more details.
In my county, all you have to do is fill out a form, present an ID, and pay a fee. The clerk will then give you the marriage license. Then, you take that license to someone who can solemnize the marriage (can be a judge or a religious minister), get two witnesses, and you’re married. You don’t need to do whole thing with the vows, but you do have to formally declare that you’re taking this person as your spouse.
Most people want something more elaborate than saying some words in front of a judge in their chambers, but ultimately a “wedding” is not legally necessary.
So the rules vary depending on what state you live in, but yes all states have some variation of a Justice of the Peace, you meet with them, they sign the marriage certificate, good to go.
In my particular case we had our Civil Celebrant (as my state doesn’t call them justices of the peace) met us at a location we wanted to get married at. Had 4 people as witnesses.
Whole thing was done in a matter of minutes.
Had to pick up the marriage certificate a few days before, but otherwise no fuss.
Some states will even do it at the courthouse when you pick up the marriage license.
So a justice of the peace now a days, has been replaced by a regular judge most places. They would be the wedding officiant. Its your wedding. If you want to get married at a court and … play paint ball afterwards go for it. Hell, even if you get married at a church I dont think theres typically rules on how you celebrate afterwards.
I am a wedding officiant in California.
Here is what it literally takes to get married in my state. The “ceremony” can take just seconds.
“Do you both want to marry each other?”
“yes”
“yes”
“OK, you’re now married.”
The only thing left is the paperwork which only takes few minutes.
My husband and I were married by a Justice of the Peace in our backyard Halloween ceremony. You can have a JP come to you, they may just charge more for the travel. Our JP was also our DJ lol.
If you’re not religious, you can get a local judge to marry you. That’s all that means, really. You need to have a legal officiant to preside over your vows, plus a couple of witnesses who sign the marriage license. You can do it as simple as bringing two friends with you to the courthouse, or you can have a full wedding ceremony just like most American weddings, but you hire a judge to do the ceremony instead of a minister.
This is determined by the State you are in.
To make an oversimplification and not a complete answer:
Usually you need two additional people beyond the couple and officiant to witness/see this happen and sign the document as well as the officiant and couple.
Then you are married, legally. Religiously and socially people have different expectations.
In small towns, he’s the smartest white dipshit who can manage to get elected by his fellow white dipshits. He’ll have a badge because his daddy gave him one and he got a double digit score on the LSAT but he’ll tell folks that he never wanted to go to law school anyway. He owns the unprofitable shoe store on the edge of town. No one is exactly sure what he does all day.
My friend recently got married this way and it was super easy. I can’t remember if she had an appointment or not, but basically she and her husband signed the paperwork and then the Justice of the Peace had them say vows. The whole thing took about 5 minutes!
The rules differ by state. In my home state of NH, you can have a justice of the peace but you can also have a civilian pay to register as officiant. Witnesses aren’t required.
We went to the county clerk for a marriage license. Had the justice of the peace do the ceremony.
Already been covered what a courthouse wedding is, but throwing it out there that it’s very common here as well for nonreligious people who do not want a courthouse wedding to get their friend to take one of those online certifications to legally wed people and then they do the ceremony. My husband has done it three times for friends and family members, at least once because he was already certified and it was the easiest option. The downside is you have to get your marriage certificate in advance to be signed at/day of the ceremony, adding an extra step. Witness requirements vary by state – we actually found out at my BIL’s elopment that Maryland doesn’t require witnesses and the license could be signed by the couple and the officient.
The reception is totally up to you and your partner.
It really depends on the individual Justice, it’s typically rather informal, you have witnesses if you want, the Justice says the legal stuff, you can call and ask directly ahead of time what’s expected.
I’ve been a witness for one, the pressure is all what you put on yourself if that helps, you/your parents won’t be like grilled or asked 20 questions.
The Justice can lead you through it with the “Repeat After Me XYZ” style, low pressure see?
Wishing you family a Happy Wedding!!!
A justice of the Peace or a judge can officiate a wedding. Generally it is just filling out the marriage certificate and doing some paperwork.
You should call the court clerk and ask exactly what you need (usually two witnesses, an ID, and some fee) and schedule a time. It’s usually not much a ceremony. Pretty quick. Then afterward you can do whatever with your family or friends.
You might consider simple rings just because it’s a very obvious sign you’re married and most no one will hit on you or wife but it’s not required.
As the local Catholic crank I have to suggest converting and having a full mass… but you can do it way more simply.
I’ve never really understood why non religious people do anything but go to the Justice of the Peace. Save the money and just roll on in and get married and you’ll have the legal status all done.
Just in case it isn’t clear: this is not the typical way that Americans get married. The more normal process is to get a marriage license from a government office and bring it to the wedding (which would either be held in the backyard of a relative or in a rented area). Once the ceremony is over (the part where everyone watches the couple exchange vows, etc.), the couple and the officiant sign and complete the license.
The justice of the peace is an option that is usually used for more low-key marriages, or if there is some reason why the couple wants to be legally married before the wedding (I knew of one couple where getting married was needed for a visa for the bride to stay within the US; however, one of the parents was very religious and wanted her kid to have a religious wedding, so the couple secretly got married several months before they had their wedding).
You would google “marriage license” in a specific U.S. State.
For a civil non religious marriage. The two of you go to a city/town clerk and get a marriage license. Then the two of you with two witnesses would make an appointment with a town or city marriage officer; which is often a Justice of the Peace but not limited to them. The clerk can give you a list.
Priest and minsters are also marriage officers for religious marriages.
There is always a ceremony the marriage officer and witnesses signs the license. the marriage officer returns it to the town or city clerk to record the marriage You are mailed a marriage certificate by the clerk.
The exact procedures are state specific, but in general you can get married by some government official at a courthouse. In Pennsylvania, there is a self-uniting marriage where you don’t need an officiant at all – it was originally for Quakers, who do not have clergy, but it’s useful for everyone.
My brother had his wedding officiated by the sheriff.
You only need marriage paper work if you want to make it matter financially. Ya’all can just do whatever you want to begin with
I think it depends on where you live. I always thought of the Justice of the Peace as a rural thing or as something in the movies. I live in a city so people not getting married in a big ceremony would just go to City Hall.
Justice of the peace is a colloquial name for a magistrate, a lower-level judge who typically only handles lower stakes civil and criminal cases (things like small claims lawsuits, initial filings for bail, traffic citations, and criminal that can result in little or no jail time).
It’s likely in every state that magistrates can perform civil (non-religious) marriages.
Some courts have walk-in hours for these types of ceremonies (for example, one a week or once a month), while others are by appointment only. My brother was married by a magistrate, and she performed the ceremony outside of her normal office hours on a Saturday morning.
Typically, the magistrate will only perform the ceremony in their courtroom or the courthouse.
You may be asked to pay a small fee, in addition to any paperwork or fees that apply to all marriage licenses in your state.
Assuming you walk in with everything you need in your state (e.g., completed paperwork, check for payment, witnesses, medical certificates, proof of dissolution of any previous marriages, appropriate identification), the whole ceremony and paperwork may only take as little as 5-10 minutes.
Justice of the peace is a title for a judge. For weddings, it is a legal proceeding where a judge performs a civil ceremony.
You can get married however you want. Most if not all states require the process/ceremony be overseen by an officiant – either an ordained minister of faith or a justice of the peace. My wife’s cousin just got remarried. Because she’s Catholic, she can’t get married in the church since they don’t recognize divorce. So her and her new husband got married by a judge on the courthouse lawn. Family and friends were invited to gather and witness. A photographer was hired to take photos, and then we all went to a local restaurant to celebrate after.
My son got married this way. Some jurisdictions may be slightly different.
They got their license and made and appointment for the next day. They could invited about up to 30 people if they’d wanted, but it was just them, my husband and me and our daughter. They took their license in with them because it needs to be signed.
The room was quite nice with chairs set up and flowers.
The JP read a generic statement and my son and his wife were allowed to state their own written vows. Then they exchanged rings, the JP pronounced them married and the couple signed the marriage license. Then we left.
This is highly dependent on the state you intend to get married in. Generally, you need to get a marriage license, an officiant, and a certain number of witnesses. The marriage license is what makes it a legal marriage and is the legal record of it. Depending on the state, the officiant can be anyone, or there could be specific requirements for the officiant like them needing to be a Justice of the Peace or some other legal officer. This is the part that will vary the most based on what state you get married in. I think every state allows an ordained religious individual to be the officiant. However, there are some states that have stricter requirements about who can ordained someone.
Start by looking up how to get a marriage license in the state you want to get married in. Then follow the directions you find.
In MA, you need to apply with the state for a nine year term, they have two direct powers: marrying people and being a notary for documents like notaries public. They have one reserve power, if the local government is destroyed, they are empowered call elections to elect government officials to reconstitute local state governments.
Yes. A lot of people actually do this. It’s done by appointment at the courthouse. My brother had a particularly nice and humorous judge on duty at his marriage. We also got to be someone else’s witnesses ( you usually need two) while we were there for him too which was very special for us.
I’m from the same cultural background as you and was also raised atheist, so I’m speaking from hearsay and from TV I watched such as Sex and the City.
The justice of the peace is a government official that takes the place of a wedding officiant or pastor (priest) when people get married. They usually work inside City Hall. Wedding vows only exist in Western European related cultures and were not historically used in the Greek Orthodox or Jewish religions.
The reason why vows aren’t issued by the state is because they vary by the religion. The “Dearly beloved…” and “death do you part” language comes from the Church of England. The weird thing about American culture is that you’re supposed to have a religion, but the government can’t say anything about what it is.
If they issued an official wedding vow based on the Church of England, then minor groups such as Jews, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, would complain. Witnesses are similar to witnesses to a crime in the legal system, they’re there to prove that it legally happened. It all goes back to the Magna Carta.
The marriage “license” is the application you fill out at your municipal office, informing the state of your intent to marry. This is where you should start. There is usually a small filing fee, for me it was like $50.
You can then choose to have a wedding, or get married by the Justice of the Peace.
They are not a religious official, although the official state ceremony might mention the Christian god a lot. When I got married our Justice of the Peace was a county judge, who came out in his judge robes and performed the ceremony.
If you go the wedding route instead, you just need an officiant who is certified by some religious institution to certify by signature that the marriage took place. The officiant and a witness are the only things that are necessary – you don’t need to hold a catered event with 125+ guests. The whole thing can take 10 minutes, you just need the officiant and witness to sign.
After that you wait a couple weeks and get your marriage certificate from the municipal office. The marriage is retroactive to the date the license was signed, regardless of when you get the certificate.
Each state has laws that dictate who can solemnize (officiate) a wedding. All of them allow clergy (certain religious officials such as priests, ministers, rabbis, etc) to do so. All of them also allow certain government/civil officials to do so, including judges. A “Justice of the Peace” is typically a lower level (town or village) judge.
If you don’t care who officiates your wedding, call the court of whatever town/city/whatever you live in and ask for information about weddings – where to get a license, how to schedule one, what it costs, etc. They will point you in the right direction.
In Massachusetts the couple goes to their town or city hall to obtain a marriage license. Then there’s a 3 day waiting period. After 3 days, you can get married by any valid officiant. That could be a clergy member, a justice of the peace, or anyone else if they file for a one-day marriage designation (https://www.mass.gov/one-day-marriage-designation). Most towns have at least one justice of the peace in their town or city hall. You can contact town hall to reserve a time to have one of these justices of the peace officiate your wedding in town or city hall. They typically allow a small number of guests, but it can be just the couple and officiant. There is no requirement to have guests or witnesses other than the officiant at a wedding in Massachusetts. And if a friend or family member gets the one day designation, you can have the ceremony anywhere. I’ve seen people do it on mountain summits.
After the ceremony, the couple and the officiant sign the license and file it at town hall. That’s it.
In summary the key elements are:
Parties, receptions, religious services, wedding parties, rings, fancy dresses or suits, and guests are all optional
Here we have judges that act as justice of the peace and marry people everyday in our county building. It takes only a few minutes.