Are County Courts open for marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010?

[MARM 7]

We are planning for a civil ceremony for January 01, 2010 at the DuPage County Courthouse. I called the court house today to find out whether they will be performing marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010, but the court is currently closed for holidays and I beleive re-opens on Monday. Does anyone know whether they perform civil ceremonies on Jan 01?

Thanks in advance!

Edited November 28, 2009 by MARM

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

We are planning for a civil ceremony for January 01, 2010 at the DuPage County Courthouse. I called the court house today to find out whether they will be performing marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010, but the court is currently closed for holidays and I beleive re-opens on Monday. Does anyone know whether they perform civil ceremonies on Jan 01?

Thanks in advance!

Hey MARM--

I doubt if any courthouses are open Jan 1. That is a holiday everywhere. If you had the license, you probably could find an officiant to marry you at a different location than inside a courthouse office. There's all kinds of people licensed to marry you in a civil ceremony at your choice of location. Just figure out when you can get the license and if there is a waiting period like some states have before you can marry using the license.

[Allie and Nigel 2]

Marm, i'm so happy for u guys! B)

[Lisa and Ian 7]

We are planning for a civil ceremony for January 01, 2010 at the DuPage County Courthouse. I called the court house today to find out whether they will be performing marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010, but the court is currently closed for holidays and I beleive re-opens on Monday. Does anyone know whether they perform civil ceremonies on Jan 01?

Thanks in advance!

Hi, Marm! I would call the county courthouse and ask. We are having a civil ceremony tomorrow (Sunday) at the county courthouse. Who knew they'd be open on Sunday?

[SunDrop 59]

Hey MARM--

I doubt if any courthouses are open Jan 1. That is a holiday everywhere. If you had the license, you probably could find an officiant to marry you at a different location than inside a courthouse office. There's all kinds of people licensed to marry you in a civil ceremony at your choice of location. Just figure out when you can get the license and if there is a waiting period like some states have before you can marry using the license.

Depends on the state too, but in most anyone can become licensed to officiate. A friend recently was married by his father and he himself is a registered officiant. I'm gonna go find out how, just coz I'm incurably curious about things like this! lol...

[damulag 26]

You are loosing out on some tax deduction by not getting married in 2009

[JERIII 8]

We are planning for a civil ceremony for January 01, 2010 at the DuPage County Courthouse. I called the court house today to find out whether they will be performing marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010, but the court is currently closed for holidays and I beleive re-opens on Monday. Does anyone know whether they perform civil ceremonies on Jan 01?

Thanks in advance!

Congratulations.

You need to contact the courthouse. I would be surprised if they were open Jan 1, which is a legal holiday everywhere in the US (as far as I know).

Many courthouses do weddings only on certain days, some don't do them at all. You may need to get the license some period of time before the ceremony.

If you can't have the ceremony done at the courthouse on Jan 1, you may be able to have it done by a Justice of the Peace, or whatever the equivalent is for your state.

[SunDrop 59]

We are planning for a civil ceremony for January 01, 2010 at the DuPage County Courthouse. I called the court house today to find out whether they will be performing marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010, but the court is currently closed for holidays and I beleive re-opens on Monday. Does anyone know whether they perform civil ceremonies on Jan 01?

Thanks in advance!

Further to my previous post, what's interesting about this is that many states you can be ordained if you are a person of good standing with your church. So with freedom of religion, what's to stop anyone from declaring that they are followers of the Church of MARM? lol...you sure have enough supporters to start your own congregation!

[Betti 1]

I just checked their website for you and if you see this link: http://www.dupageco.org/courts/docs/2009CourtCalendar.pdf, you will see that the court was closed on January 1st 2009. I assume it will be the same for 2010, but they don't have a calender for the next year posted yet, so I can only assume. Good luck!

[Old Dominion 26]

If you have your license, you can be married anywhere you choose on New Year's Day, if you can find a magistrate, justice of the peace, or a licensed minister to do it.

[Christi and Ian 24]

We are planning for a civil ceremony for January 01, 2010 at the DuPage County Courthouse. I called the court house today to find out whether they will be performing marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010, but the court is currently closed for holidays and I beleive re-opens on Monday. Does anyone know whether they perform civil ceremonies on Jan 01?

Thanks in advance!

I work for the Public Defenders office for Riverside County - no, there will be no courts open on New Years Day, and in California, they are also closed the 3rd Wednesday of each month due to furloughs, as well as Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

[Jay & Beverly 0]

We are planning for a civil ceremony for January 01, 2010 at the DuPage County Courthouse. I called the court house today to find out whether they will be performing marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010, but the court is currently closed for holidays and I beleive re-opens on Monday. Does anyone know whether they perform civil ceremonies on Jan 01?

Thanks in advance!

I'm sure there is an absolutely perfect reason for you both for choosing January 1st and I wish nothing but the best for you both..

Not to play Devil's advocate, but I just want to echo a comment made by someone else that if you were married on or before December 31st, there is a serious bonus in store for you in terms of taxes. If your fiance has been having tax withheld all year at the "single" rate, he can claim "married" when filing taxes for 2009. Even if only married for 1 hour in 2009, the tax code in allows you to claim the married status for the entire 12 month period. The net result would be a couple thousand dollars refunded to you in April that you won't get for for getting married on January 1st.

Another item to consider... My fiance is from Canada and will have to file taxes in Canada for the year in which we marry and the year following which means 2010 and 2011. If we would have been married by the end of this year, she would file for 2009 & 2010 and it be one less item to carry forward into another year. You might want to check to see if there are similar implications for citizens of the UK marrying a US citizen.

[Jay & Beverly 0]

Hey MARM--

I doubt if any courthouses are open Jan 1. That is a holiday everywhere. If you had the license, you probably could find an officiant to marry you at a different location than inside a courthouse office. There's all kinds of people licensed to marry you in a civil ceremony at your choice of location. Just figure out when you can get the license and if there is a waiting period like some states have before you can marry using the license.

Depends on the state too, but in most anyone can become licensed to officiate. A friend recently was married by his father and he himself is a registered officiant. I'm gonna go find out how, just coz I'm incurably curious about things like this! lol...

I am a licensed officiant and have performed 2 such weddings; one in Maryland and one in my current home State of Oregon. Anyone can be ordained to perform weddings through the Universal Life Church. I believe there is a $5 'donation' required. It takes maybe 10 minutes to register on-line (the Lord works in mysterious ways) and you can print out the accreditation which is accepted in most of, if not all 50 States.

Some states (Maryland, for example) only requires the person performing the ceremony to be 'recognized by both parties being married' as someone they want to perform the service. I still went ahead and did the ULC registration to ensure that was going to be legal.

In any case... if you... or anyone else desire to become an officiant, you call find all the information required at ULC.org.

Here is a link for the laws for all States:

http://www.themonastery.org/jcontent/marri...te=themonastery

[drlarryclements 4]

While romantic, if you get married in December 2009 rather than January 2010, you can claim married when you file your income tax for this 2009. Use that money to pay for the honeymoon.

[Arabella 4]

We are planning for a civil ceremony for January 01, 2010 at the DuPage County Courthouse. I called the court house today to find out whether they will be performing marriage ceremonies on Jan 01, 2010, but the court is currently closed for holidays and I beleive re-opens on Monday. Does anyone know whether they perform civil ceremonies on Jan 01?

Thanks in advance!

I would say no court houses will be open.

This is what I would do:

Apply for the marriage license in advance (in Florida you can get it 60 days in advance).

Then find a notary public/justice of the peace/minister to do the ceremony on January 1st (they will most likely charge you unless they are a friend/relative).

Then you turn in the license with the signature of the person who officiated and the signatures of witnesses (if required) the next day that the court house is open.

You are then married on January 1st, even though the court houses were all closed!

This is what I was going to do. . . But future hubby is not ready to get married that soon!

Good luck!