July 19, 2007
How Hard is it to Get a Marriage License in D.C.?
Over at Gallery Place Living, contributor Columbo provides an illuminating rant on everyone's favorite topic to whine about: D.C. government bureaucracy. In this case, specifically the arduous process of obtaining a marriage license in D.C. Before a lengthy recounting of the entire ordeal he and his fiancée went through to obtain a license to be wed in the District, Columbo summarizes the experience thusly:
Step 1: Discover bureaucratic nightmare that is DC.
Step 2: Get blood test for syphilis despite how crazy & outdated that is.
Step 3: Decide DC's not worth it and get married in Vegas.
Check out the whole post for the all the details of his story, which does make the process, including the syphilis test and having to declare who your officiant will be even before you get the license, sound like a pretty big pain in the keister. In all, the blogger says you have to make minimum of 5 separate trips to get a marriage license from the District. And as one married DCist staffer points out, Columbo's story even leaves out some of the finer points of frustration involved -- like that if you want a minister from a non-DC church to do the ceremony, you have to get them licensed, which includes sending in notarized copies of church bylaws.
If you've been married or have ever tried to get married in D.C., be sure to answer our poll below.
Photo by Kyle Walton
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This may make me look totally humorless but I felt obliged to point out that the District of Columbia has the highest rate of syphilis infection in the United States. Infections among men in the District have been escalating for several years.
This is from the CDC:
Honestly? I just did it last week. And it wasn't too difficult.
Yes getting the syphilis test was a pain, but in all we made a total of two trips--got syphilis test at clinic, went straight to courthouse with results, waited maybe 10 minutes to see someone, filed paperwork, returned three days later to retrieve license. Relatively straightforward as long as you know ahead of time what will be required of you.
I have an English degree and am not good at HTML. Here is the CDC link.
Also--you can skip the step of going to the Health Department lab and paying them a fee if you go directly to one of the 8 or 9 clinics that have the DHS blue cards and are recognized as official marital blood test takers. The list is displayed in the marriage license bureau and I am sure they would provide it if you called and asked.
We went to one on Georgia Avenue and were in and out in less than 20 minutes.
I had the same experience as Columbo--just too much damned trouble. But I didn't go to Vegas. It's just as easy to cross the river and get it all done in Arlington.
I don't know what Columbo is bitching about, other than for the sake of bitching. While not the most convenient process, getting a marriage license in DC isn't a whole lot more difficult than anything else you might need to do at a DC public agency. Here are my issues with this post:
1. As previously noted, you can go to one of the clinics that will issue the blue card to you. Or, imagine this: some people's doctors will actually send them their syphilis test results by mail! Either one of those will cut Columbo's 5 trips down to 4.
2. The DHS and Marriage Bureau are so close together that they are practically in the same building. A smart person will make 1 trip to Judiciary square, get their blue card at DHS and then march it right over to the Marriage Bureau to submit their application. Now we've cut the 5 trips down to 3.
3. Any person with half a brain, who has EVER dealt with any public agency in any place in the world before in their life, will look on the internet and make phone calls to find out everything they need to know before showing up at the agency in person. The marriage license form is available online and it clearly states that you need to provide the name of your officiant. The fact that Columbo showed up at the Marriage Bureau w/out knowing who his officiant was is just idiotic. Whose fault is it when you show up to the DMV to apply for your driver's license w/out proof of residency?
4. Yes, there is a 3-day waiting period to pick up your license. About half the states in the country require a waiting period, including Maryland. Again, how freaking hard is it to look up this information on their website more than 5 days before your wedding?
Getting married is a major lifecycle event that many people spend months and months planning. It's clear that these people had plenty of time to plan this wedding and they let this one item fall through the cracks. Sure, there are some seemingly outdated things about the DC marriage requirements -- like testing for syphilis. But, life is only as difficult as you make it. The resources were available to Columbo to make this a lot easier for himself than it was. Whose fault is that?
I recently got married in DC. I hated the syphilis blood test. Big invasion of privacy in my opinion. Heard the test is a holdover test from WWII when that was a big problem. Is that true?
Other than the test the rest of the marriage stuff wasn't too bad as long as you just make sure you follow what they say on the DC government website.
My doctor's office swears that you don't need the blue card anymore. My fiance got one from the lab where he took his blood test, but I don't have one, so we will find out tomorrow whether they accept mine or not.
You not only have to write the name of your officiant, but that person has to be on the list of registered officiants in DC -- this has been the biggest hassle for us, because we want a friend who is ordained online to conduct the wedding. He needs notorized endorsement from someone who is already registered from the same religious sect. We found someone to do the endorsement but he did not mail the paperwork back to us yet even though we gave him a prepaid express envelope. We are worried that the DC bureaucracy will not be lenient with us, but the blood test results "expire" tomorrow so we have no choice but to try. We may have to start all over again if they don't accept it. Good thing our wedding is in October and we're ahead of the game.
Or you can be one of the tens of thousands of D.C.'s gay citizens and wish you could go through the hassle it takes to get married.
Yeah, this is a breeze compared to what we went through. My partner and I, both male, are registered domestic partners in D.C., but when we left the city to move abroad found out that our relationship wasn't recognized because--get this--the District of Columbia isn't a state. We were shocked that D.C.'s laws weren't recognized, despite being more "akin to marriage" and binding than many of the states on the approved list of this particular EU country.
The three trips to get the marriage license (Georgia Ave blood test, Court House, and then back to Court House) were a pain, but the biggest joke was the one day liquor license from the DC gov't that we had to get. At least the rules for the marriage license are clearly spelled out and well publicized. The liquor license, however, was some sort of mythological creature. It was like applying to take the bar exam, but worse in that it involved a trip for each of us to the court house in Arlington to show that we were law-abiding citizens, a trip to the DC police to do the same, a trip to the venue for a certified copy of the map of the venue (???), numerous calls to the caterer . . . and then two trips to whatever oversight office and waiting for the Board to rule on it. Although we did get to listen to all of the local bar owner's business plans and what not.
I have to echo the commenters that found the DC Marriage Bureau to be actually EASIER to deal with than most governmental agencies. Great, efficient, friendly lab on Georgia Ave that only charges $15 for a syphillis test.
By the way, our officient was my husband's father, who is an internet minister. His church facilitated the paperwork. 3 days after he received his official licensure, we went to apply for the license. The clerk typed in the information, and lo and behold, his name was in the computer. No problem.
If this dude found the marriage bureau to be a nightmare, I hope he never has to go to the dmv.
Also, to the guy who was hoping for "leniency."
1. Good luck.
2. The license is only good for 30 days. Getting it now when your wedding is in October won't work.
Getting married in Baltimore County in a few weeks. You have to bring the Clerk of the Court $35 and name, address, age, social security number, place of birth, and marital status for both people. Only one of you has to show up. No ID requirement.
We're getting married in Baltimore. I just had to drive up, give our SS numbers, ages and address, $35 and voila, marriage license. you don't have to wait to *pick up* the marriage license in two days, they give it to you right then and there. The marriage just has to be more than 48 hours after you acquire the license. and since it's good for six months, so it's easy for locals.
took me all of five minutes to get. The biggest hassle was the drive.
We thought about doing it in DC, but the blood test, naming the officiant, etc., seemed more hassle than it was worth.
Like previous posters have stated, it is easy to get married in DC. Get the blood test, go to the courthouse and give 'em your $35. We even talked to a judge to have him waive the waiting period so we could get married earlier... piece 'o cake. We hired a minister online from some VA church and he came out and married us in a DC park. The minister did the paperwork for us and we retrieved the marriage license. When at the register to pay the clerk said "Good luck" instead of "Congratulations" which is priceless in my opinion!
getting a license in dc is easy as pie. finding a caterer in dc that makes decent italian food, now that's a pain.