help!!! wedding planning in texas

[pantonia 39]

I'm hoping I am asking this on the right thread. My boyfriend and I are at a loss here on how to proceed with wedding stuff so I'm sorry if we come off as dumb with these questions, but we are in desperate need for advice and answers!

Some context on the situation:

I'm moving to the US (Feb. 26) on a K-1 visa and we'll be holding the wedding on March, 19. We live in Denton, Texas and we plan on getting our marriage license there and marry at a lake house that's in another county.

Some question about the license :

• I've read you need to provide a Social Security Number to get a marriage license, but for various reasons I'm planning on getting mine after the wedding. Is it really a MUST?
• If I wanted to call someone local or "official" for further information, who do I need to call? Denton County Clerk's office?
• Are witnesses required? If so, are there any requirements for them?

Then, about the actual wedding, we need of course an officiant, but it all seems very confusing to us, specially to me, because everything is extremely different from my country. The county clerks office doesn't give information as to who can marry you or how to go about it to ensure the wedding is done the legal way, so we've been left looking on the internet, but there's just tons of websites and people claiming to be wedding officiants and there's no way for us to filter who's trustworthy and who's not. Who can we contact to look for someone respectable, trustworthy, etc? We don't want a religious wedding and we don't need a cheesy wedding filled with anecdotes and what have you, we would be just happy with a simple thing that get things done but professionaly.

Does someone also have an idea on what to expect for a fee from the officiant? Saying we are on a budget is an understatement and while of course we want someone reliable, we also need to not go broke hiring someone and we don't even know a range of prices.

If all fails or we can't find anyone, someone in my boyfriend's family has offered to get ordained, which sounds like a great idea but it just blows my mind. In my country it is unthinkable that someone "random" could just go ahead and marry you and it would seem fishy at best, so I've been having a hard time understanding where to go to know how it works and how to ensure that it is being done under the legal requirements for the whole thing to be valid. We have heard many people say "it's easy" and so on, but we can't seem to find any reliable source to give us some peace of mind on it and an actual direction to go to.

Any othe random mysterious information I should know about but isn't posted in many places would be appreciated too, since we could easily get blindsided by something we didn't even think of!

We'd very much appreciate some help!!! I'm still in my homecountry, so all I can do is phone places, but I don't even have an idea on who to call. My boyfriend is extremely busy and under a lot of stress and literally doesn't get home until it is too late to call anyone and his family, for various reasons, is unable to help us with this right now.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Edited February 5, 2016 by pantonia

[Dave & Mong 29]

We used a local magistrate. We too got our license in another county other than the one we were married in, pretty sure it has to be the same state though. We got our marriage certificate there a few minutes after the ceromony.

[andy78 178]

This may help answer your question about the wedding officiant:

Here is an example of a page that contains a list of some officiants in Texas. It also contains reviews from their previous customers:

https://www.weddingwire.com/c/tx-texas/denton/wedding-officiants/9-vendors.html

Any wedding officiant who has a license from the State of Texas to perform marriage ceremonies can do this. It doesn't matter who they are. They are a service provider and you are a customer, and that is it (as you said, it is different in the US). So, all that matters to you (aside from price) is to insure that it is being done legally is whether or not they have a current license to perform the marriage. They have websites and you can e-mail them with questions.

I think the cost will depend on the services you need. If you only need an officiant to perform the marraige and that's it, then it will probably be less expensive. Sometimes they offer other services, like wedding planning, etc., so you need to specify exactly what you need them to do.

Also, judges can perform the wedding ceremony, but you will have to ask about that in the court.

Edited February 5, 2016 by andy78

[Amhara 460]

Some question about the license :

• I've read you need to provide a Social Security Number to get a marriage license, but for various reasons I'm planning on getting mine after the wedding. Is it really a MUST?
• If I wanted to call someone local or "official" for further information, who do I need to call? Denton County Clerk's office?
• Are witnesses required? If so, are there any requirements for them?

Then, about the actual wedding, we need of course an officiant, but it all seems very confusing to us, specially to me, because everything is extremely different from my country. The county clerks office doesn't give information as to who can marry you or how to go about it to ensure the wedding is done the legal way, so we've been left looking on the internet, but there's just tons of websites and people claiming to be wedding officiants and there's no way for us to filter who's trustworthy and who's not. Who can we contact to look for someone respectable, trustworthy, etc? We don't want a religious wedding and we don't need a cheesy wedding filled with anecdotes and what have you, we would be just happy with a simple thing that get things done but professionaly.

Does someone also have an idea on what to expect for a fee from the officiant? Saying we are on a budget is an understatement and while of course we want someone reliable, we also need to not go broke hiring someone and we don't even know a range of prices.

If all fails or we can't find anyone, someone in my boyfriend's family has offered to get ordained, which sounds like a great idea but it just blows my mind. In my country it is unthinkable that someone "random" could just go ahead and marry you and it would seem fishy at best, so I've been having a hard time understanding where to go to know how it works and how to ensure that it is being done under the legal requirements for the whole thing to be valid. We have heard many people say "it's easy" and so on, but we can't seem to find any reliable source to give us some peace of mind on it and an actual direction to go to.

Any othe random mysterious information I should know about but isn't posted in many places would be appreciated too, since we could easily get blindsided by something we didn't even think of!

We'd very much appreciate some help!!! I'm still in my homecountry, so all I can do is phone places, but I don't even have an idea on who to call. My boyfriend is extremely busy and under a lot of stress and literally doesn't get home until it is too late to call anyone and his family, for various reasons, is unable to help us with this right now.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

The license application will ask you for both parties SSN, but you don't need to give it if you don't have one. My husband and I married in Dallas County and he will apply for his SSN after his EAD, which we hope he will have in about a month.

You can contact Denton County clerks office for more information.

Witnesses are not required. At our ceremony, only my step-mother was present and she was not asked to sign the license.

You can schedule a marriage with a Denton Justice of Peace. They do charge and I suggest looking for several. I asked two Dallas JOP's and one wanted $100 and the one we went with wanted $60. I suppose you can even choose a Dallas JOP if you so wish too! My husband and I visited an imam for his religious nikah and he charged $200.

When you two show up to apply for your marriage license, it will be printed with both your current names on it and you can use that as proof of your name change if you take his last name. It's considered a marriage certificate once it's "officiated" by an "officiant". Then it's sent to the main County office to be registered, and that is what you will use for your AOS. For our petition, I got three certified copies from the County and sent in for our AOS/EAD/AP.

You can look for Denton JOP's here: http://dentoncounty.com/Departments/Justice-of-Peace-Pcts.aspx

[yuna628 9,676]

I'm hoping I am asking this on the right thread. My boyfriend and I are at a loss here on how to proceed with wedding stuff so I'm sorry if we come off as dumb with these questions, but we are in desperate need for advice and answers!

Some context on the situation:

I'm moving to the US (Feb. 26) on a K-1 visa and we'll be holding the wedding on March, 19. We live in Denton, Texas and we plan on getting our marriage license there and marry at a lake house that's in another county.

Some question about the license :

• I've read you need to provide a Social Security Number to get a marriage license, but for various reasons I'm planning on getting mine after the wedding. Is it really a MUST?
• If I wanted to call someone local or "official" for further information, who do I need to call? Denton County Clerk's office?
• Are witnesses required? If so, are there any requirements for them?

Then, about the actual wedding, we need of course an officiant, but it all seems very confusing to us, specially to me, because everything is extremely different from my country. The county clerks office doesn't give information as to who can marry you or how to go about it to ensure the wedding is done the legal way, so we've been left looking on the internet, but there's just tons of websites and people claiming to be wedding officiants and there's no way for us to filter who's trustworthy and who's not. Who can we contact to look for someone respectable, trustworthy, etc? We don't want a religious wedding and we don't need a cheesy wedding filled with anecdotes and what have you, we would be just happy with a simple thing that get things done but professionaly.

Does someone also have an idea on what to expect for a fee from the officiant? Saying we are on a budget is an understatement and while of course we want someone reliable, we also need to not go broke hiring someone and we don't even know a range of prices.

If all fails or we can't find anyone, someone in my boyfriend's family has offered to get ordained, which sounds like a great idea but it just blows my mind. In my country it is unthinkable that someone "random" could just go ahead and marry you and it would seem fishy at best, so I've been having a hard time understanding where to go to know how it works and how to ensure that it is being done under the legal requirements for the whole thing to be valid. We have heard many people say "it's easy" and so on, but we can't seem to find any reliable source to give us some peace of mind on it and an actual direction to go to.

Any othe random mysterious information I should know about but isn't posted in many places would be appreciated too, since we could easily get blindsided by something we didn't even think of!

We'd very much appreciate some help!!! I'm still in my homecountry, so all I can do is phone places, but I don't even have an idea on who to call. My boyfriend is extremely busy and under a lot of stress and literally doesn't get home until it is too late to call anyone and his family, for various reasons, is unable to help us with this right now.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

About licenses and clerks of court:

Typically you want to go to the county clerk of the court of the county you're actually marrying in (usually in a courthouse) to obtain the license. I'm sure that some states have free-for-all licenses. I just know that my state requires that you obtain a license from the same county the marriage will take place in.. so make sure that you've clarified that by checking with your clerk of court.

Immigrants get married all the time, and in general an SSN is not needed for them. We used my husband's passport, filled out the form, took an oath - and voila no problems.

Witnesses and other such rules again will be particular to the state and county. The clerk would certainly know.

I started looking for an officiant very early in the process. This was a big concern to me because I wanted someone that would be understanding of the situation, affordable, and did not mind crafting a non-religious wedding. I used WeddingWire to look at reviews and ended up finding two individuals that fit our style best. The one was too booked unfortunately, but the other ended up being perfect. Generally they will either want to meet with you or have phone/Skype conversations to get a feel of what you want. We worked closely with the officiant by phone and email to create our vows and ceremony (they may give you a booklet to customize). As you can probably see officiants have a range of prices. I tend to think somewhere under $400 is fair but you'll see prices in a ridiculous range.

[Mike-eeh and Odie 193]

Your town's Mayor can marry you. That said, here are a list of Officiants one can use in Texas:

Officiants in Texas:

Persons authorized to perform weddings in Texas include licensed or ordained Christian ministers, priests, Jewish rabbis, officers authorized by religious organizations, justices of the supreme court, judges of the court of criminal appeals, justices of the courts of appeals, judges of the district, county, and probate courts, judges of the county courts at law, judges of the courts of domestic relations, judges of the juvenile courts, retired justices or judges, justices of the peace, retired justices of the peace, and judges or magistrates of a federal court of Texas. (source: see link below)*

Here is also a helpful link for marriages in Denton, Texas:

* http://www.usmarriagelaws.com/marriage-license/texas/denton/county-clerk/office-requirements.shtml

[TBoneTX 45,299]

We used a Justice of the Peace, after calling a few places to see who was available soonest.

In addition: We asked our JoP if we could hand-carry the signed marriage license to the courthouse ourselves, to get marriage certificates created while we waited. We ordered 7 of them (at $7 each, then), and this saved much time in filing for Adjustment of Status, forming a joint bank account (with lack of a Social Security Number for Mrs. T-B.), etc. I highly recommend that you obtain multiple marriage certificates.

[pantonia 39]

The license application will ask you for both parties SSN, but you don't need to give it if you don't have one. My husband and I married in Dallas County and he will apply for his SSN after his EAD, which we hope he will have in about a month.

You can contact Denton County clerks office for more information.

Witnesses are not required. At our ceremony, only my step-mother was present and she was not asked to sign the license.

You can schedule a marriage with a Denton Justice of Peace. They do charge and I suggest looking for several. I asked two Dallas JOP's and one wanted $100 and the one we went with wanted $60. I suppose you can even choose a Dallas JOP if you so wish too! My husband and I visited an imam for his religious nikah and he charged $200.

When you two show up to apply for your marriage license, it will be printed with both your current names on it and you can use that as proof of your name change if you take his last name. It's considered a marriage certificate once it's "officiated" by an "officiant". Then it's sent to the main County office to be registered, and that is what you will use for your AOS. For our petition, I got three certified copies from the County and sent in for our AOS/EAD/AP.

You can look for Denton JOP's here: http://dentoncounty.com/Departments/Justice-of-Peace-Pcts.aspx

thanks so much!! good to know the price range sounds reasonable and everything else seems pretty straight forward!

[pantonia 39]

We used a Justice of the Peace, after calling a few places to see who was available soonest.

In addition: We asked our JoP if we could hand-carry the signed marriage license to the courthouse ourselves, to get marriage certificates created while we waited. We ordered 7 of them (at $7 each, then), and this saved much time in filing for Adjustment of Status, forming a joint bank account (with lack of a Social Security Number for Mrs. T-B.), etc. I highly recommend that you obtain multiple marriage certificates.

great tip about multiple marriage certificates!! I have a question though, what is a justice of the peace? so far, I know they perform marriages and that's it. I'm just curious because apparently in the US almost every person is able to officiate a wedding, yet I hear a lot of people doing it with a Justice of the Peace... what is it "special" about them?

thanks for the help!

[Amhara 460]

I selected a JOP because I wanted a non-religious marriage officiant. That's our official license, so I was attracted to the JOP secular nature. (Later, my husband decided he wanted a religious paper attesting to our marriage; hence, the imam.) The JOP also handles certain lawsuits, so the are an administrative judge for small, civil matters.

[Pitaya 2,577]

RE: SSN:

We followed the K1 Flowchart (steps #15 and #16), my wife was able to get her SSN in a reasonable time.

http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1flow

This is also a good thread about SSN, especially #3 posting: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/513513-recommended-update-information-for-ssn-application/

Good luck on your immigration journey.