Having a catholic wedding when already married

I believe you can only have one legal marriage license at a time in the U.S. You could call the courthouse and ask but I think that's how it works.

If you're already married, you can't get married again (ie can't get another marriage license) without getting divorced first. Does the priest marrying you know that you're already legally married? Is he comfortable doing a symbolic ceremony?

You can't get another marriage license, you're already married. You can have a wedding ceremony in the Catholic Church after already being legally married, my father and his wife are currently in the process of doing just that. Do you plan on telling your family you're already legally married?

You cannot get another license. I would definitely advise you to speak with the church - find out what they would like you to do. It's not safe to assume anything, so have a sit down with your priest or whoever is in charge of your ceremony in your church and give them full background information.

Yeah, just to echo everyone else, you're already legally married so there is no need for another license. Is there a reason you think you need another one?

I have no clue how catholic ceremonies work, but I imagine that the person doing your vow renewal would need to know that you are already legally married, since I would guess it will change the wording of the ceremony a bit.

Good luck!

Only one state that I know of (New Jersey) allows you to get a marriage license if you are already married (and that works only if the second ceremony is in New Jersey). But you don't need one, anyway. You're already married, and each state recognizes marriages from all the other states.

Did you get married in a Catholic church the last time? If not, you could have what is known as a convalidation ceremony. Because the Catholic church will not recognize a marriage outside of a Catholic church without an advance dispensation from the church, the convalidation ceremony is essentially the marriage ceremony for church purposes.

If that's not an option, you could talk to the priest about doing a renewal of vows. In many instances, the wording is so similar that your guests are unlikely to notice that it's not a wedding. However, if you're trying to use it to hide the fact that you're already married from your family, I don't know that a priest would go along with it.