It may be a function of the summer heat - but a few people have been confused lately about the legal process of getting married. YOU MUST GO TO CITY HALL AND OBTAIN YOUR OWN MARRIAGE LICENSE. BY YOURSELVES (or at least one of you, with the other persons signed application and ID).
THE OFFICIANT DOES NOT OBTAIN YOUR MARRIAGE LICENSE. Nope. No way. I'm not getting married TO YOU - I'm officiating at your wedding. To the person you love.
Once you have gone to the Marriage Bureau, and satisfied the City Clerk that you meet the conditions for getting married - proved your identity, shown that you are of age, and not currently married to someone else, and not related to the other prospective spouse in one of the excluded categories - and filled out all the questions with the names of your parents, your full legal names (yes, you have to use all those names on your birth certificate) and your legal address, etc., and paid the fee, you will obtain an official license-to-be-married.
THEN, you can bring the license to a REGISTERED MARRIAGE OFFICIANT, along with your intended, two witnesses and your IDs, and you can get married.
If you have any questions, please check with your officiant and with City Hall. Turning up at kind Father O'Flaherty's in the pouring rain on the Brooklyn waterfront to be married in the parlor with him in his slippers only happens in movies. And trust me - a former Brooklynite - it doesn't happen in Brooklyn, either.
ELOPE TORONTO: Simple personalised legal weddings in Toronto. (Micro-weddings, pop-up weddings, 'registry or signing the papers' or 'City Hall' style weddings). Contact MaryBeaty (at) Gmail (dot) com.