How to get married... quickly!

[Scandi 4,251]

It was way more important for us to get the greencard application in, than having a wedding ceremony. So we just did the county clerk ceremony, they had available appointments every day of the week.

It was $85 and no witnesses needed. Quick and easy. 

I believe the marriage certificate was $25, and we only ever needed 1 for my entire immigration journey. So we never bothered getting more copies of it. 
 

Edited March 5 by Scandi

[TBoneTX 46,716]

  On 3/5/2025 at 1:42 AM, Scandi said:

I believe the marriage certificate was $25,

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Wow -- ours were $7 each.

  On 3/5/2025 at 1:42 AM, Scandi said:

we only ever needed 1 for my entire immigration journey

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How fortunate!   We ordered 7:  one for each set of parents, more for banks, and more for other official uses, leaving us exactly one for ourselves.  In our case, it was better to have risked having too many and not needing them than it was to under-order and be caught short.

[Scandi 4,251]

  On 3/5/2025 at 1:55 AM, TBoneTX said:

Wow -- ours were $7 each.

How fortunate!   We ordered 7:  one for each set of parents, more for banks, and more for other official uses, leaving us exactly one for ourselves.  In our case, it was better to have risked having too many and not needing them than it was to under-order and be caught short.

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It's nasty Los Angeles, nothing is cheap here. 🤢

We have only needed one, we have used it in person for everything. Immigration interviews, bank meetings, SSA appointments etc.

Not a bad idea to have more if something happens to that one though. Especially if they're only $7 each. 😄

[Dashinka 25,217]

When my now wife got her K1, she did not jump on the next plane to get here.  Se actually took almost the entire six months of visa validity to tie things up before moving which gave us the chance to plan a nice wedding at my brother's house for immediate family and friends (~100 people).  We did not make any commitments until she had the visa in hand, and once we set the date.

  On 3/5/2025 at 1:42 AM, Scandi said:

It was way more important for us to get the greencard application in, than having a wedding ceremony. So we just did the county clerk ceremony, they had available appointments every day of the week.

It was $85 and no witnesses needed. Quick and easy. 

I believe the marriage certificate was $25, and we only ever needed 1 for my entire immigration journey. So we never bothered getting more copies of it. 
 

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That is crazy, I believe in 2014, in my county they were $5 for a cert. copy.  Also we were able to get the certificates 2 days after the ceremony when we took the license in person to the clerk and 5 minutes later we had several copies of the certificate.

[garebear397 86]

Not that I recommend doing it exactly in the timing we did it....but we planned a larger wedding in my wife's home country, that was going to be our "second" wedding. Basically the idea was she would arrive in the US on K1, do a quick small ceremony, apply for the GC and AP right away, get her AP or GC before we needed to go back down for the big ceremony. We were planning our wedding out probably a year in advance, and just tried to build in plenty of buffer time if things got delayed -- and we ended up using most of the buffer time. 

 

So my wife arrived in the US in August, we got married a day later in my parents house with like 5 other people there, applied for GC and AP right away, and luckily got her GC in time in December, because we had the wedding planned for January in Chile. 

 

Like I said....I wouldn't recommend doing it with such tight timing, if you want to plan a big ceremony just build in lots and lots of buffer time, and know that you also basically have 9 months of time once you get the visa (6 months validity of K-1 visa, and have to marry in 3 months). 

 

[Scandi 4,251]

  On 3/5/2025 at 12:18 PM, Dashinka said:

When my now wife got her K1, she did not jump on the next plane to get here.  Se actually took almost the entire six months of visa validity to tie things up before moving which gave us the chance to plan a nice wedding at my brother's house for immediate family and friends (~100 people).  We did not make any commitments until she had the visa in hand, and once we set the date.

That is crazy, I believe in 2014, in my county they were $5 for a cert. copy.  Also we were able to get the certificates 2 days after the ceremony when we took the license in person to the clerk and 5 minutes later we had several copies of the certificate.

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Yes, crazy expensive here. They claim that the certificate is "only" $17, but then you're also forced to pay a $9 "handling fee". 

It takes up to 8 weeks to get your marriage recorded in L.A. county (before that you can't get the certificate), we were lucky that it "only" took 4 weeks.

We got married in the end of November 2016, and in December USCIS raised their fees.

We managed to ship our AOS off 1 day before the new fees took effect, the same day our marriage was finally recorded and we could go pick up our certificate. 🤪

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ontarkie 14,712]

I started planning an outdoor wedding before our visas were approved. I bought my dress in Canada, we planned where we would get married. We picked the Old Mill since it is Arkansas and yes a big tourist and wedding destination. But it was new to me and exactly what we wanted. When we finally made the move we picked the place to order the food and cake. Grabbed a kit at Walmart to print our own invites. The hardest part was the JP, I had to call a few. Then we all gathered at the house for food, music and booze  

[Loren Y 2,762]

I am still doing the ceremonies and certificates in the same day here in Las Vegas. Copies are 25 here now, and the license is right around 100 dollars. If you are interested, just message me, and I can get you my contact info. As long as we do the ceremony on a Monday thru Friday when the clerks office is open, can get everything done in about an hour.

[SL2024 177]

We paid $17 per Marriage Certificate copy about a month ago 

[hplusj 344]

Vegas, baby.

 

 

We started venue hunting/hashing out logistics right at the time of our NOA2, and we added a much needed buffer to when Jon would actually arrive.  I did an ensemble which was part Etsy, part Amazon.  Jon did a rental in Vegas.  I gotta say, that town knows how to do a wedding, and it can be as classy or as trashy as you want.  People see our album and can hardly believe it; no neon signs or Elvis officiants for us!

 

Even if you don't do Vegas, working with a microwedding/elopement company is going to nail down a venue last minute with all the little details included.  With hindsight 20/20, we are very glad to have not gone through the awful expenses of throwing a bigger bash, with Jon's side in various parts of the globe who would not be able to attend, and on my side showing very little interest in breaking convention, which sadly is what our wedding required.  We spent almost $600 to livestream our ceremony in an attempt to include people from afar.  It's embarrassing how many people misunderstood and/or ghosted us, on what was supposed to be the most important day of our life together.

 

Focus on having the people there who give a damn, just putting that out there.  Getting married is a great time to learn who is your community out of obligation or entitlement and who is in your life to support you, with genuine respect and interest.  Sorry if that sounds bitter.  We were blessed to have our moms there as well as my maid of honor, with readings done via webcam from Jon's dad and his best man.  We made it work.  Instead of pressing all those people who failed us to show up for another party, where they get to wine and dine on us, we're pressing forward to maybe a vow renewal in ten years, surrounded by the community of good souls we hope to foster over the next decade.

Edited March 16 by hplusj

[TBoneTX 46,716]

  On 3/16/2025 at 4:28 AM, hplusj said:

People see our album and can hardly believe it

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Just from your photo above:  What a lovely, happy couple!

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,101]

  On 3/5/2025 at 5:13 PM, Scandi said:

It takes up to 8 weeks to get your marriage recorded in L.A. county (before that you can't get the certificate), we were lucky that it "only" took 4 weeks.

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Riverside county was a bit quicker than that for us (Temecula was the nearest place to us at the time that had outdoor weddings at the county clerk's office other than downtown San Diego, which their web site tried to talk you out of due to limited parking).

I don't recall extra copies being super-expensive (we got four or five, have used 3 I think), but that was in 2019.

I do remember when we were trying to figure out exactly where to do things that LA county had a reputation for being slow so if we were going to go outside of San Diego County (which we did), it was going to be to Orange or Riverside.

[hplusj 344]

  On 3/4/2025 at 4:23 PM, Daphne . said:

It was -40 F outside, so that was easy in terms of keeping the food frozen until it was time to serve it

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One of the perks of living in the upper midwest: every winter you get a ton of extra fridge space.  It's called a garage 

[mam521 2,378]

  On 3/4/2025 at 3:25 PM, yuna628 said:

My last piece of advice is everyone always makes a big deal about the dress, but pay attention to what is going on your feet. I had originally wanted combats a friend had painted which my family threw a fit about, and pushed me to get heels which then the bridal company lost. They offered backups. Well they were the absolute worst things - bloody blisters, dye that ran straight off... get what is comfortable for your feet the rest of the noise can shut up about it!

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What a shame!  Amen to comfortable shoes!

 

Side note along a similar line: My kid's senior prom is in May.  She has a beautiful, green gown and we have purchased some black sneakers that have lace, satin ruffles, ribbon laces and rubber soles.  She plans to wear boy shorts underneath because no one will see anyway.  She feels like a princess in the dress and her tootsies should be just fine!  

 

Yesterday was actually my 7th wedding anniversary!  We went for lunch one day from work.  I asked what he wanted to do for lunch.  He said maybe we should go get a marriage license.  I agreed, so that's what we did.  I asked on our local neighborhood page about a marriage officiant and found one.  We asked our friends if we could get married in their beautiful yard.  They agreed.  I found my dress and had to hem it myself because it was too short of notice - didn't care - it had pockets!!!  Got the kids' outfits and hubs ordered a suit from Italy that was overnighted.  Ironically, his suit cost more than my dress, which was only $175 with the fancy belt.  Our friends took photos for us.  We took them to dinner at a local restaurant where I know the chef.  Chef sent a like 9 course dessert tasting menu...it was crazy.  So, I think we got the license on Mar. 23 and were married on Mar. 31.  We were still dressed up and it was a teensy bit fancier than a courthouse wedding, but we were happy with how it all turned out, none the less. That said, telling my bestie on April 1 that I got married was a challenge - she legitimately thought I was trying an April Fool's joke on her 🤣.  

 

Today is my 5 year immigration anniversary.  Yep, we activated our PR on April Fools during covid when the border was technically closed.  Gotta keep it interesting, right?!

 

Anyway, back to the OP - decide what scale you want and go from there.  We did JP.  My brother did destination wedding with a big reception back home 3 months later for everyone that couldn't make it to the wedding.  It's your wedding.  Do what ultimately makes you happy!  The marriage is the important part, anyway❤️.

[Nywoek 62]

Just wanted to say I love all your replies! I did not mean to abandon this thread. XD

Since we are looking at us hopefully arriving in the summer, we will need to get married by fall.. probably closer to arrival than the deadline.

Yesterday we talked about a Vegas wedding. I just want us to wear something nice and get some photos with my kiddos. We can plan a big party for everyone later, in a few years or so. 😃