Does Pennsylvania Recognize Online Ordinations through Universal Life Church or American Marriage Ministries?

The best thing to do is call the county clerks office where they are getting married. They will have the most up to date information.

Yes, I agree with PP. Call or go into the county clerks office to ask. I’m also getting married in PA, and I’m going to reach out to the clerks office (Lehigh) to confirm whether or not they’ll accept a marriage license signed by someone ordained online. FHs cousin is supposed to be our officiant. I’ve heard that different counties and clerks have different opinions. Some will sign off on the marriage license, and some won’t accept it. Definitely don’t wait to find out though!!

Don't count on the county clerk's office!!! The problem may not come up when you file the license--but it can come up years or even decades later in the case of death, divorce, or bankruptcy. The legality of the marriage can be questioned at that time, at which time it will be too late to fix it.

Pennsylvania has "self-uniting" marriage licenses, which means you don't need an officiant at all. Your best bet is probably to use that to get legally married. At that point, you can have a ceremony using anyone you choose as the officiant, since the marriage is already legal.

I did call the York county clerks' office today at my lunch. They just told me "they don't make that determination." And then just told me to read the PA laws regarding marriage. Which i have about 20 times. It is quite frustrating to figure this out. I definitely don't want there to be issues down the line.

I do think the self-uniting license option may be the best in these cases.

I was having this same questions. We wanted my cousin to marry us and this is the information he was told. The state of Pennsylvania does not recognize online ordained ministers but they do not police it. They rarely, if ever, look into who actually sign it at the time it is submitted but could potentially go back in the future and look i to it. So, basically you can have an online ordained minister marry you and you could be fine for years and years but the county could crack down and recheck marriage licences and your marriage would be null and void. Because of this we decided to have a pastor perform a 'real' ceremony a day or two before so we get our marraige license signed appropriately. That way the day of our actual wedding we can have whoever we want perform the ceremony in front of all our loved ones and not have to worry about the future.

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Hi! How did you make out with this?

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Husband and I ended up getting a self-uniting marriage license (Lehigh county). This doesn't require an officiant of any kind, just witnesses to sign the license. You essentially just need the bride and groom to say their vows and pronounce themselves married, and have the witnesses sign. We did have husband's cousin perform our ceremony, he was one of our witnesses who signed, along with my MOH. Same as any marriage ceremony performed by an online ordained minister, just different paperwork really. When we went to the courthouse to get our marriage license prior to the wedding we just asked for a self-uniting one. Make sure you tell them that if you go that route! It just seemed like the safest option for us, so that we didn't have any issues further down the line.

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Thanks for getting back to me! I think we might end up doing this. I'm sort of worried about the awkward verbiage for the person who "performs" the wedding if we do the self-uniting license. Do you remember what your husband's cousin said in place of "by the power vested in my by the blah blah.."? Thanks!!

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Yeah, I'm pretty positive that he said at least "by the power vested in me". Not sure if he specified his credentials at that time. It's not like the state is going to be there watching going "oh man these guys had an officiant, it's not technically self-uniting..." and send you to jail or nullify your marriage or anything You don't have to provide a script to be approved for a self-uniting license! The only person we really explained the license to was his cousin, because he was confused as to why the license he was signing was different than what he would normally sign. Other than that, it was a normal non-denominational ceremony.

While I was researching all this before we got our license, I did find some things online through Google that had actual scripts that people did create for their weddings. Some actually explained to guests that they were doing a self-uniting marriage, and basically did the vows and pronouncing as husband and wife themselves instead of an officiant but still included family and friends as speakers (like this!). But we didn't do all that, just a normal ceremony! No one questioned us.

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Awesome. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to explain this all to me! I really appreciate it. Best wishes for you and your husband!

I'm ordained through them and have performed ceremonies. I don't know of any states where it's not recognized, but if you feel better I agree with Sarah about calling the clerk's office. I've never had an issue with any i've done though

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Of course! Happy to help Good luck with the rest of your planning!

View Quoted Comment My FH and I will be going tomorrow to get our self uniting marriage license. I’m so afraid of running into issues but you said you got yours in Lehigh County? That’s where we’ll be going and was just wondering if your experience ran smooth

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Nope, we had no issues! Just went to the clerk's office and asked specifically for the self-uniting license. It was super easy.

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Can you explain the process after you sign it? Do you mail it in, or do you have to hand it in in person?

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After my wedding, I took a few extra days off work to do some stuff since we did not go on a honeymoon. I went to my local SSA office to change my name on my SS card, and since the courthouse in my town is right up the street, I took our signed marriage license back to the Orphan's Court to have it filed the same day. I believe that there was also an option to mail it back in, if you weren't able to bring it back yourself.

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I am ordained online by Universal Life Church, I have yet to perform a ceremony but will be doing at least 3 in 2020. Did you have any issues returning the licenses to the county offices? What counties have you performed in? Any help would be appreciated.

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Laura, I am ordained online by Universal Life Church, I have yet to perform a ceremony but will be doing at least 3 in 2020. Did you have any issues returning the licenses to the county offices? What counties have you performed in? Any help would be appreciated.

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No issues so far. I'm in Wayne county Michigan. My brother who is also ordained hasn't had any issues either. All I did was call my county clerk to ask if I needed anything special, or a special license from them, but I don't. I just have to have credentials stating i'm a minister if i'm ever asked for them. For the first wedding I did it took awhile to get the license back, I was afraid it was me, but the bride didn't send it to the correct address. So far only Wayne county

I’m ordained through Universal Life Church and gave done one wedding already and have another lined up. I had no issues with the marriage license in Lancaster County PA. Just called to see if they needed anything from me. Went in with the bride and groom and filed it with no issues. They even got a certified copy for SS and the DMV.