The Officiant Can Sign the License Right?

Oh yikes!! This doesn't sound promising. I think I'd look for another option.....

Each state and or county can have different rules on who qualifies as an officiant. Call the county you’re getting married in to clarify if your friend is qualified to sign or not.

View Quoted Comment He says he’s signed them before and has even called the courthouse to make sure it was fine..which it was. I just found it very strange that he usually did it that way

I found this by doing a simple Google search.

"Applicants are advised that persons who have been ordained over the Internet may not be persons permitted to perform marriages in Pennsylvania. A recent Court decision held that persons ordained over the Internet are not ministers as defined in the marriage law of Pennsylvania IF they do not regularly preach to a congregation that regularly meets at a place of worship. You are advised to consult an attorney

concerning the legality of such marriages."

You can find that link here. I would still follow up with your county's clerk office.

PA Officiant Law

I agree with calling and finding out what the regulations are in your state. We are getting married in Vegas and they make it difficult for anyone who isn’t a licensed/legal officiant to do the wedding. We were able to get around it by having the “real” officiant sit in the audience and witness the ceremony while my dad officiates. The real officiant does have to sign off on the license, but my dad gets to perform the ceremony.

Just see what the regulations are in PA. I’m sure you’ll be able to find a solution!

Our officiant signed our license -that was his job. I would check your county in PA as I know online ordinations are not legal in every county in PA.

I just did some research and PA has a “self-uniting” marriage license. This license requires NO officiant and is completely legal. You apply for it just like you do a regular license and two witnesses will sign at the wedding. I think we found our answer!

Here’s the info:
https://m.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/tying-your-own-knot-in-pennsylvania-couples-can-wed-through-a-self-uniting-marriage-license/content?oid=1805655

In Pennsylvania, there is at least one court case that says that a marriage officiated by someone ordained online is not valid. There are other cases going the other ways, but it's really not something you want to fool around with.

As you've already figured out, you can, however, have a self-uniting ceremony. That seems like your best bet.

View Quoted Comment

The problem is that the county clerk's office can't help you. They would issue the marriage certificate. However, the marriage could still be held invalid by a court even decades later. Typically, this happens in the course of a divorce, death, or bankruptcy, when it is too late to fix the problem.

Also getting married in PA and trying to figure this out! FHs cousin is going to be officiating and he was ordained through a church online. He’s performed weddings before but never in PA. The laws in PA are weird. It says they don’t recognize officiants who were ordained online because they have to preach to a congregation regularly or something to be considered legally able to marry you. But I’ve heard that most counties will accept the marriage license and years later if they do a review or audit or whatever of licenses, it could be found not valid 😳 I’m looking into the self-uniting marriage, as Heather suggested.

View Quoted Comment I called our county clerk and they have self uniting marriage in Mercer county. 47 bucks!

It will, however in PA depending on your county, they can decide those "friends" weren't authorized to marry you. I went through this with mine. Our officiant is a close friend but we DID get married before our ceremony, and actually by the mayor, because of issues like this. Our officiant was technically ordained, BUT say your county said, "all marriages performed between ****, not by a clergy (WITH A CONGREGATION, this is what the big debate is about,) are not legal." You are not married by the state. They will NOT check to see if your officiant is "clergy, government, judge," but it's the after the fact thing, they can change the law however they see fit, and you are "not married", but they will not tell you, if this happens, you'd have to be privy to the law to know this.

View Quoted Comment I’m Mercer County as well and want to do a self uniting certificate. Was it easy to apply for?