Self-uniting marriage license

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Samantha and OP - I'm getting married in Lancaster county and am doing the self-uniting license. Lancaster is VERY iffy about internet-ordinations. I spoke to the county clerk, and they essentially won't give you any guidance other than to say that internet ordinations "may or may not be considered legally valid." That wasn't good enough for me! You can, of course, always FILE your marriage license in a different county than the one who issued it. But that said, we are doing what another poster mentioned... have a friend "emcee" our wedding (to everyone else, he is the "officiant," but legally, he isn't). He will be one of the two witnesses to sign. NO ONE should get freaked out about a self-uniting license becoming "invalid" after laws change. First of all, that would only be an issue in the case of a nasty divorce, or some other LEGAL reason that you'd need your marriage certified for. And second of all, as someone else noted, these licenses have been issued by the state of PA for a VERY long time - the Supreme Court has even ruled on them.

Contact your county clerk. It's the only way to be sure the information you're getting is accurate.

PA is just a weird state. In Chester county you can have a friend become ordained and marry you. Some family members did that and they are legally married from it. Just contact the county in which you want to get married in for the best answers.

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I'm also going to be trying to get my self-uniting license in Lancaster for my 8/25/18 wedding, so if you go first, I'd love to know how it went for you! My brother got his in Harrisburg and didn't have any problems.

Beyond the license aspect of this topic, does anyone have any good ideas on ceremony structure for a self-uniting marriage? I'm planning a self-uniting ceremony for 8/25/18 and want to make sure it still has a nice structure, but is still mostly about my fiance and I. I'm not sure if we're going to have an emcee or not. Any ideas would be lovely!

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That's actually why we decided on the self-uniting license rather than taking a chance on being married by someone who got ordained on the internet (and yes, I know that a professional officiant would also have been an excellent choice!). My husband actually got ordained online and performed his brother and sister-in-law's wedding a few years back...to be honest, I'm more confident that the legality of our marriage will hold up than the legality of theirs, but we all make our own choices.

This is interesting. Does anyone know if this is a thing in Maryland? I would be interested in not having to pay an officiant LOL

View Quoted Comment You need to check with your county clerk, but I’m pretty sure the only two states that have counties that allow this are PA and CO.

Definitely not a thing in Maryland.

When I fill out the self uniting marriage license, and have 2 ppl sign it and turn it back in to the office, are we considered married that day or do we have to wait until we receive a marriage license in the mail on a random date?

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Well, there's a difference between being married and being able to prove it You are married on the day you are married; if you need to prove it for some legal reason, like if you want to get your name changed right away, you will need to wait to get the marriage certificate back. You can actually return your completed license to the courthouse in person; not saying that this happens in every county, but I ran our paperwork over to the courthouse myself and walked out with the certificate a few minutes later. A good option if you need the certificate quickly and have time to do that kind of errand.

PS: The license is what you get to demonstrate that you have permission by the state to marry; the certificate is what you get afterward to prove that you are married.

Hello!
Im a little late to this discussion but my fiancé and I are getting married in 1.5 months and our offficant just backed out. I’m considering the self-uniting marriage license but my anxious personality is making me consider everything that could possibly go wrong. Just was wondering how this worked out for all of you? It seems like the only messy situation could be if we moved States in the future to a state that doesn’t recognize this type of marriage (which is just about all of them)?

I know I'm a little late to this thread, but I've just started looking into the laws in Chester County for licenses and officiants, and basically we could get a self-uniting marriage and be all set no questions, but the lady at the court told me that they "will not reject an online-ordained officiant, but if legality questions arise in the future it is up to you to prove that your marriage was legal" ... we were wanting our friend to officiate for us, and I wouldn't have a problem with her just being a 'ceremony emcee' except for the language, like she won't be able to say that she pronounces us husband and wife. If someone has done the self-uniting, can you give me an idea of what kind of language must be used for it to be valid? Do you have to say "we declare ourselves husband and wife" or can someone else say a few words to the effect of "through your own statements of vows and commitments, I now pronounce that you are husband and wife". I just want to know about the language really, thanks!