Here it is in a nutshell:

1. You must first obtain a marriage license to get married which issued through the County Recorder’s office. I can supply that for you so that you don’t have to spend half your workday navigating through the system.
2. You must have your marriage solemnized by an authorized wedding officiant. That’s a fancy way of saying that you have to have a wedding ceremony. I can also perform your wedding ceremony for you. Now some people aren’t the big wedding ceremony types and I can make the wedding ceremony as big or little as you want. I have often married people in restaurant booths, coffee houses and their houses. Your ceremony can be as long or short as you wish as long as I cover a couple of basic wedding laws.
3. Your officiant must file the signed and filled out marriage license after your wedding ceremony. And it must be correctly filled out or the county will probably reject it. I’m an attorney, so paperwork is second nature to me and knowing that the mail systems can be unreliable and slow, I hand deliver all of my marriage licenses to the County Clerk’s office.
4. The California Confidential Marriage License, the one that I am authorized by Los Angeles County to issue, is completely legal. If I were getting married today (and I won’t because I am happily married) I would get this type of marriage license. Why? Because of identity theft and telemarketers. The other type of marriage license is a Public marriage License, as in THE PUBLIC can see all the information that you list on it including your birthdate, your parent’s names, and your residence address. Take a look at my marriage license page and tell me if you want the world to know this about you.

Hopefully this wedding info will help set many couples straight about California wedding laws. Just give me a call and I can make it all very easy for you.

Many people I talk to think that the Confidential Marriage License is not a valid license, but that is not the case. The only thing that a Confidential Marriage License does it protect your marriage license information from public view. As it is right now, ANYONE can view your personal information on a Public Marriage License and the county has the ability to sell that information to database companies.

Go to my marriage license page on my main website and view what information that someone would get ahold of if you apply for a Public Marriage License. I highly recommend a Confidential Marriage License because in this day and age of identity theft and telemarketing I believe it is very important to make your personal information as private as possible. Don’t you?

I can issue a Confidential Marriage License to you if your wedding takes place in Los Angeles County and you attest that you live together as I am an authorized agent of the county and I can deliver that marriage license to you. Give me a call.

Southwest Magazine, Spirit, recommended Officiant Guy

A man wrote into the Fly Girl column of Spirit, the monthly magazine issued by Southwest Airlines. He and his fiance had decided on a private small wedding when they got engaged but it started snowballing into a larger, more stressful wedding. He wanted to elope and was thinking about a destination wedding.

Fly Girl responded that wedding planning is stressful and talked about elopement packages and wedding location alternatives. She suggested us!

From Spirit, September 2007 officiant recommendatons:  “You could do . . . a California terrace overlooking the sea (check out Officiant Guy, who covers the waterfront of SoCal at officiantguy.com).”

Don’t forget that he can also issue you a marriage license, so your elopement package is easy. Plus he knows a great photographer who makes you look great!

Thanks Fly Girl for recommending the Officiant Guy.