The Marriage License

Count backwards from your planned wedding date 30 days. This is the earliest date you and your fiancee should go together to the county clerk's office and apply for a marriage license. The latest date you can get the license is 72 hours before the ceremony. The clerk's office will give you a form to fill out and ask for proof of identity and age. Your driver's license should be fine. You are answering the questions under oath, so don't lie. One of the questions asks whether you are not delinquent on child support payments. If you are, the clerk cannot refuse to give you a license to get married, but you should expect a call from the friendly folks at the child support office. The clerk will also give you a brochure about HIV/AIDS awareness. You don't have to take a blood test. Once you have the license, you have 30 days to get married.

The Marriage Ceremony

You must wait at least 72 hours from the time you get the license until the ceremony. The only exceptions are for active members of the armed services and Defense Department employees. If you cannot wait 72 hours, you can ask a judge to sign a waiver of the waiting period. The law is largely silent on the form and structure of the wedding ceremony. You can use traditional vows or write your own. You can have your sister as the "Best Man." It's all up to you. There are only two requirements that are stated or implied in the Family Code:

1. Someone who is authorized to do so needs to officiate. The ceremony can be conducted by a licensed or ordained Christian minister, a Jewish rabbi, or an authorized officer of a religious organization. If you want a civil ceremony, a judge or magistrate can preside. After the ceremony, the official who presided records the date and county where the ceremony took place and returns it to the county clerk within 30 days.
2. You're both supposed to be present at the ceremony. However, there are ways around this if one of you cannot appear. You can appoint another adult to stand in your place as a proxy in order to participate in the ceremony. You can name the proxy in an affidavit and give it to the county clerk. Then in the wedding ceremony, when the minister asks if Groom takes Bride as his wife, the proxy is authorized to answer, "He does." Whether the proxy gets to kiss the bride is up to her!