You Just Got Married…..Now What?
The marriage license is your permission to be married, when you provide it to your Officiant on the day of the wedding (free of any stains or wrinkles); your Officiant will sign and file the license with the county. Your Officiant is required to return the license to the county where it was issued within 10 days of the ceremony.
To Get Copies of your Marriage Record
FOR LA COUNTY MARRIAGE LICENSES
If you Obtained your marriage license from the LA County Clerk’s Office and you pre-ordered the certified copies the county will mail them to you within 8 weeks. If you did not pre-order them they will be available for pickup in 6 weeks.
If you want them mailed to you, you can fill out a request for marriage record form along with a notarized certificate of identity form along with a check to the county for $15 for each copy. These forms are available online at the county’s website.
If one of our notaries issued you the marriage license and the appropriate check was attached to the request forms the county will mail them to you within 8 weeks.
ORANGE- SAN BERNARDINO-RIVERSIDE-SAN DIEGO-VENTURA & OTHER COUNTIES
The copies should be available for you to pick up in 3-4 weeks.
If you want them mailed to you, you can fill out a request for marriage record form along with a notarized certificate of identity form and a check payable to that county for $15 for each copy. These forms are available online at each county’s website.
SPECIAL NOTES
Once your license is submitted to the County, your Officiant and Great Officiants has no access to the documents. If you have pre-ordered them and have not received them after 8 weeks, please do not contact Great Officiants. First, please contact the LA County Clerk at (562) 462-2189 to check the status or If you obtained them in a different county, contact the county clerk’s office where you obtained the license.
The county will ask you for your marriage license #, this can be found on line 25e of your customer copy if provided. If your county does not provide you with a customer copy. Please make a copy of your marriage license for your records.
If the county needs the officiant and/or the notary to make corrections with a duplicate or amendment, we will do our best to guide thru this process. If there are any other issues we will quickly help you resolve the issue to the best of our abilities.
How to Change Your Name
Once you receive the certified copies from the county clerk’s office you can then start the name change process.
You must first go to Social Security (SSA) and then to the DMV. See below for further instructions.
- To change your name at SSA:
- You must fill out and print an Application for a Social Security Card. The application may be found here: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ss-5.pdf
- Take your application and documents to your local Social Security office.
- You must show the required documents:
- Recorded Marriage Certificate (not the customer copy)
- Current form of ID: a U.S. State ID, U.S. Driver’s License, OR U.S. Passport.
- Please also note: If you have not already established U.S. citizenship with SSA, you will need to show proof of this; SSA will accept the following as proof of citizenship: original U.S. birth certificate OR U.S. passport.
- To change your name on your driver’s license or ID you will need to visit your local DMV office and:
- Complete a Driver License or ID card Application (Form DL 44).
- Get the form in person at the DMV or have it mailed to you by calling (800) 777-0133.
- Provide your marriage certificate as your proof of name change.
- Surrender your old CA driver’s license or ID.
- You will also need to pay a fee of $27 or $29.
