Date on marriage certificate?

The license and certificate are legal documents so you and the officiant will be held liable if there are any known discrepancies going in. That is fraud and grounds for the marriage being null and void, and your friend will be barred from being able to work again. The license which is picked up in the state you are marrying in is given by the marriage license office and is only valid for a specific period of time.


How far away is the destination wedding? If it’s in the US, you pick up the marriage license in another state. If it’s out of the country, it’s generally easier to get legally married in the US and have a vow renewal overseas as the legal process there is very complicated to be considered legal in the US.

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I am not having a DW. I probably didn't explain myself well, sorry about that. I live in Florida and I am getting married in Florida as well. I just want my legally married date to be two days after we have our ceremony. To avoid any discrepancies, should I just renew our vows two days later with our officiant so I can use that as our legally married date?

As Michelle said, a license is a legal document and you don't get to decide how you want to fill it out on a whim. What you are trying to do might technically be possible, but the only way to know for sure is by checking with your officiant and the laws in your state.

View Quoted Comment You ask the marriage license office and they will likely say no. They will say that if you want to be legally married on the 22nd, then you hold your ceremony on that day. You don’t get to pick a different date for the legal document because it makes it void.

I would definitely speak to your local courthouse and see how to navigate this situation. I am guessing you would probably have to just have a non-legal commitment celebration on the 20th (where the officiant/notary does not marry you and you do not take vows), then actually take your vows with the notary on the 22nd. I definitely would not suggest committing fraud on your marriage certificate, as it could lead to your marriage being voided and your friend losing his title.

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I think I should have worded my question better, lol. I am not trying to lie or fill anything out incorrectly. More so, just trying to figure out use a certain date as my official wedding date while having the ceremony on a different day. I guess the ceremony the day of my wedding in this case wouldn't be an actual ceremony it would just be considered a symbolic ceremony. Then, two days later, we do a legal ceremony with our officiant and sign our documents.

You could possibly have a symbolic wedding on 2/20 (where anyone could have you say vows). Then on 2/22 have your real vows administered by your officiant and certificate signed. As others have said, you probably want to double check with your state.
I understand what you were trying to ask regarding DWs. At least in Mexico, the couple officially has to get married in US (that is date on wedding certificate) then the symbolic wedding is in Mexico.

You can do a performative ceremony on the 20th and then do the legal ceremony on the 22nd, you just need to do everything required to make marriage legal on the 22nd, where I am getting married it involves 2 witnesses and saying about 4 lines then having everyone sign the valid license but for Florida who is marring you will know what it takes.

It's not really my thing and I wouldn't bother but Lots of people do it the other way around (get legally married earlier for like insurance purposes and such) but some people look down on having the big ceremony and the legal stuff separate so just be warn some people might give you a hard time and your guest will all think your anniversary is the 20th.

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I guess I still don't understand. Your official date is when you get married. It's as simple as that. Good luck with everything.

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Right, yes, this is exactly what I was thinking. So the 20th would just be a symbolic ceremony and then the 22nd we will do our actual vow exchange and sign documentation. Thank you! I think the way I worded it was definitely wrong, lol. In no way did I mean to come across as committing fraud, oops!

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Thank you for understanding. I was like wait, what? Isn't this basically the same situation for destination weddings. You either do your legal ceremony before your DW or after when you return. I think our best route will be just symbolic on the 20th then 22nd do our actual vows and sign!

View Quoted Comment Oh I didn’t take it as you trying to commit fraud… I just think a lot of people don’t realize that it is committing fraud. I say that because my fiancé and I had actually contemplated doing the same thing. I am also big on numbers, but our target date fell on a weekday, so we thought about getting married on Saturday, thinking we could just put Monday’s date on the marriage certificate. Turns out, nope, you can’t do that! Lol I had no idea

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Yeah for sure! It's easy to overlook. I am completely okay with doing the vows on the day we want to sign the certificate. We are doing traditional vows in front of everybody anyways and then doing private ones alone so this works out even better for us!

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Your wedding date has nothing to do with the day the symbolic ceremony is performed. We had no ceremony and just had a judge sign the papers in the courthouse. The date your officiant signs your marriage license is the date you are married, theres nothing fraudulent about it not being during the formal ceremony. People do this all the time.

Edit: Also, saying vows has nothing to do with it. Your legal marriage is just a piece of paper and as long as you go through the paper process correctly you are not doing anything fraudulent. Our judge just asked if we wanted to get married, we said yes, we all signed, it was good to go.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much! I felt so small after I posted this , I had to go back and read what I wrote . I was like wait it’s basically the same thing as a destination wedding, no?

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I think people got confused and thought you were going to have your officiant post date it, which is illegal. As long as you and your witnesses are present and sign it all on the day you want and put the correct dates you are perfectly fine.

View Quoted Comment Definitely! Florida doesn’t even require witnesses but we will have them anyways thanks again!

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I'll also add that you can tell people your anniversary is whatever day you want. If you want it to be 2/22/22 but you had your wedding on the 20th, thats ok. Celebrate whenever. My husband and I got legally married on November 2nd 2021 but arent having our wedding until 3/4/23. We are considering 3/4 our anniversary and just tacking on an extra year.

View Quoted Comment Hey girl I don't know why most people here just responded in a mean way .It is possible to be honest without being mean . Anyway I hope things worked out for you the way you wanted and let me say congratulations to you.

These comments are soooo dramatic sheesh 😫
I hope you got that date girl congratulations 🎊🎈