You have choices approaching infinity when you are deciding where to get married! You have options such as the “courthouse steps,” a family member’s backyard, a church sanctuary, hotel ballrooms, outdoor parks or one of the many luxury wedding venues in Georgia. To “make it official” a marriage requires 3 things- a marriage license, a ceremony and a qualified officiant. There are no restrictions limiting where the ceremony can take place. The officiant can be a minister or another “authorized person”. While the ceremony locations and officiant choices give many options, the marriage license requirements are very specific. Let’s take a look at how to get a marriage license in Georgia.
How to get a marriage license in Georgia is not a complicated process. Here are the basic steps:
1- You both must be present to get a marriage license.
2- You must be at least 18 years old and have proper identification. There are some exceptions to the age requirement. If either of you has been married before you must have proof of a divorce or proof of death.
3- You get the marriage license at a county probate court. If one or both of you is a Georgia resident you can use a probate court in any county. If neither of you is a Georgia resident you need to get the license from the probate court in the county where your marriage will take place.
Here is a site to find out where the probate court is for each county in Georgia:
https://georgia.gov/apply-marriage-license
4- You must pay the fee. In Coweta County the license fee is $56. The fee is $16 with a notarized premarital counseling form. The fee varies slightly by county. These are the fees as of January 2025.
5- The wedding ceremony must take place in the state of Georgia. On your wedding day you will get the pastor or officiant to sign the marriage license. You will need to return it to the probate court within 30 days of your ceremony and should get your marriage certificate in the mail within 30 days after you return it.
There are many steps on the path to get married. Getting a marriage license in Georgia is one of the easy ones. Enjoy the time together as you get your license. Maybe you can turn this task into a special occasion and celebration. Do you need help finding ways to turn getting your marriage license into a special occasion and celebration? Just let us know. Celebrating life events and special occasions is what we do!
The Venue at Murphy Lane is an outdoor wedding venue in Newnan, GA & we would love to hear from you. You can view more photos of our venue by clicking here. You can view more details about our wedding packages by clicking here.
Thank you for stopping by our blog! We hope that you will consider hiring a locally owned wedding venue for your big celebration. Locally owned wedding venues provide the best wedding experience, they tend to have little to no turnover, they support the local economy and they are part of the community. Choosing a locally owned wedding venue means the world to our small owned wedding venues. In an effort to support locally owned wedding venues, we will feature several small business wedding venues in each of our blogs. Find locally owned wedding venues in the wedding venue map on www.WeddingVenueOwners.com
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