Hello! I’ve seen my whole life church weddings in movies, dramas etc. Since I’m not catholic, I don’t know anything about it personally but very much curious. One thing I always wanted to know is catholic weddings are mainly about vows and it ends with bride and groom kissing each other. But don’t they’ve to sign in any marriage certificates for legal purposes?How government keeps track of these nupital?
I’m sorry if I got info wrong. And any help is appreciated since it’ll help me to enhance my knowledge.
Not to get too religious on here, I’m catholic myself. Before jumping straight into marriage especially to be married in a church you have to go through a couple things.
1. Baptism (often times, in a Hispanic household, it’s done within the first 5 months after birth) 2. First Communion (this happens when you’re usually between the age of 8-14) 3. Confirmation (ages between 14 & up, when I did mine I was 18 and did mine with older people in their late 40s and up lol)
After that, you go through the process of filing with your city hall and state to get a marriage license that allows you to get married. Pretty much after that is all paperwork to make the change in bride’s last name if she wishes to take his
Without first holy communion you can’t get married
You have to go through the process to get married
I’m a catholic
I did my communion at age of 13
Confirmation at the age of 16
Not catholic but to my understanding there is a whole ceremony and process before marriage and the ceremony for the marriage has prayers and vows then the priest blesses them and they kiss completing the ceremony. << This may marry you in the eyes of God by making a solemn vow to love and protect and honor- BUT it doesn’t give you the rights of an ‘actual’ married couple.
Sound stupid? Yes. Also a fact in the US. You can have a wedding ceremony whenever you feel like it but your marriage isn’t legal until you file proper docs with your local and state government.
So to answer the question I quoted: Yes, you have to sign and file a marriage license with your county government (the local county’s courthouse) and they send a copy to be kept in the State archives to properly document your marriage to another person. No license, no real marriage.
Now there are those who choose not to file an official marriage license and instead sign a ‘domestic partnership’ with each other-- which is essentially “we live as a family together and I want this person to be able to act on my behalf”. Unlike a marriage, it doesn’t require a divorce attorney to dissolve it.
So no, the ceremony itself doesn’t make a legal marriage - it’s just a ceremony to celebrate the union.
You’re welcome. I am not Catholic so I can’t explain what each step means as far as Communion and all that, but at least the website will give you search words to use to research further
Good luck
Hey, to sign and file a marriage license, does bride and groom go together to file it or someone can do it on their behalf?
Also, to not sound stupid but marriage license is it like form you can bring it home, write the necessaries then you file it to the state office? or is it like you have to be present at the government office, they give you a form, you fill it there then they take it back?
Hope my ques makes sense. I’m sorry I’m just curious
Both parties have to be present when signing a marriage license -you can’t legally sign anyone else’s name on official documents when you aren’t married-- otherwise, I can imagine several people would be signing celebrity names on all kinds of marriage licenses
Now that we are married, I can act on my husband’s behalf but unless he’s incapacitated somehow, he still has to sign his own legal documents.
You go to a courthouse, tell them you and your partner want to file a marriage license, they give you the paperwork to sign and then they take it back, make official copies to submit to the state office and give you a marriage license. You can also get married in a courthouse and it’s the same process. Both parties have to be present, both have to sign and have identification on them.
No problem- - just think of a marriage license like when you go to get your drivers licesnse for the first time, you gotta go to the dmv, wait in line, take the test then they give you an official document (the license) and you’re good to go. lol
All the ceremony types and religions are important to the individual but all the local and state government care about is whether you both signed a piece of paper making yourselves legally a family unit in their state.
So no, the ceremony itself doesn’t make a legal marriage - it’s just a ceremony to celebrate the union.
This actually depends on a country. Some countries (like Poland) have special international agreements with the Vatican (called the concordat) that make church weddings automatically valid on the state level without the need of having a separate wedding coordinated by a state official.
This of course only refers to the roman catholic church led by the pope in the Vatican. I know there are smaller christian churches popular especially in the US that this rule does not apply to as they are not “led” by the pope.
