Jen's Blog

License to Marry

Gary and I got our marriage license this morning. Barely. We plan to get married in San Francisco, but wanted to get the license ahead of time in case there were any problems.

We first went to the courthouse in Fremont, where one can both get a license and get married. I had never been there, but seen it from the street, and had already decided it's not where I wanted to get married. Going inside confirmed that this was a good idea. The first thing you have to do is walk through a metal detector; since I had a small Swiss Army knife on my keychain I had to go back to the car to drop it off. The courthouse is where you go to get married, divorced, and pay your traffic ticket. Most people there were in line for traffic court. There is a criminal court there, too, which is why they have the metal detector I guess. All in all a seedy, dimly-lit place.

When we finally figured out where to go, we were told that the computers were down, and they weren't issuing marriage licenses or certificates. Apparently they'd been down for several days, and weren't expected back up for several more. But, we could go to Oakland if we liked, or call back later in the week. The clerk gave us a form to fill out, but said that we'd have to bring it to Oakland anyway, and it might not be the same form that they use.

Now it was 10, and Gary was supposed to be at a meeting at 11. We decided to try the Redwood City courthouse, which is where I thought we'd get married to begin with. Forty-five minutes later we were walking around a totally different kind of building. In stark contrast to the dark, ugly Fremont courthouse, the buildings in Redwood City (it's a complex of buildings, not just one) were modern and airy. Even if we weren't getting married here, it wasn't a bad place to get the license. And at least I felt safe walking around!

The desk where one gets a marriage license is also, surprisingly, where one can register a fictitious business name. They had us fill out our information ourselves on the computer (which apparently we could have done at home ahead of time.) Then the clerk took our money ($78), asked us to swear that everything we had put on the form was true, and that was that. A couple behind us clapped when we swore. Gary later said he wished he had turned around and asked, "Why are you clapping? We're just getting a fictitious business name."

So now we have a license (which, after it's properly filled out, is also the marriage certificate), a souvenir certificate, and a booklet about having a healthy marriage (don't do drugs, don't drink while you're pregnant, etc.) Now there's just another 30 or so things left to do on the list!

Posted by Jen at August 9, 2004 01:48 PM