Wyoming marriage license: the officiant's duties

Who can officiate. W.S. 20-1-106 lets every licensed or ordained minister of the gospel, bishop, priest or rabbi, or other qualified person acting under the traditions or rites of any religion, denomination or religious society perform a Wyoming wedding, as can judges, court commissioners and magistrates (Wyoming Legislature).

How long the license lasts. A license from a Wyoming county clerk expires one year from issue if the marriage has not been solemnized (Wyoming Legislature).

Getting it back. Under 20-1-107 the officiant also gives one of the couple a certificate signed by the witnesses, listing names, ages and residences, the names and residences of at least two witnesses, and the time and place (Wyoming Legislature).

Witnesses. No particular form is required, only that the couple solemnly declare in front of the officiant and at least two attending witnesses that they take each other in marriage (Wyoming Legislature).

Name changes. For a name change, Wyoming Vital Statistics Services points couples to the Social Security office, in person or online, where an electronic application needs the State File Number printed on the certified marriage copy (Wyoming Vital Statistics Services).

Layouts differ from county to county, so the only authority on the form is the form in your hands. Read the officiant's block through before the ceremony rather than after it. It will generally ask for some or all of this:

• The date of the ceremony, and the city or town where it happened. Not the date the marriage license was issued, and not the county that issued it.
• Your printed name, and the capacity you are solemnizing under — minister, ordained officiant, judge, whatever the form calls it.
• Your address or contact details, so the County Clerk that issued the license can reach you if something is missing.
• Your signature, on the officiant's line rather than a witness line. On most forms they sit close together.
• 2 witness signatures, with printed names. Collect them before anyone leaves for the reception — a witness who has gone home is a form that cannot be finished.

Sign it the moment the ceremony ends, while everyone is still in one place, and read every field back before the room empties. A blank or unreadable line is the commonest reason paperwork comes back, and it comes back to you. If something goes down wrong, do not scribble over it — ask the County Clerk that issued the license how they want a correction made before you send it.

The ceremony is the part everyone watches. This is the part that goes wrong, and it goes wrong quietly — in a car, in a jacket, in the week afterwards when everyone has gone home.

• Put it flat in an envelope before you leave the room. Not folded into a jacket pocket, not loose in a bag with the rings and the running order.
• Photograph both sides before it leaves your hands. It is not a substitute for the original, but if the original goes astray you know exactly what was on it and who signed.
• Deliver it in person if the County Clerk that issued the license is reachable, and ask for something that shows you handed it over.
• If you post it, use a service you can track. "I put it in the mail" is not a record.
• It is recorded when the County Clerk that issued the license records it, not when you send it. Ring them a fortnight later and confirm it arrived.

10 days sounds like room. It is a weekend and a couple of working days, and on one of those days you will be recovering.

No, and this is the question the couple will bring back to you — usually weeks later, when one of them is trying to change their name. The two documents do different jobs, and knowing the difference saves you a phone call you cannot answer.

• The marriage license is the record of the ceremony. It is the paper you have been handling, and once the County Clerk that issued the license has it, your part is finished.
• A certified copy of the marriage certificate is what the County Clerk that issued the license issues afterwards. It is the version institutions ask for — a bank, an employer, the Social Security Administration, a passport office. A photocopy of the marriage license is not it.
• It has to be requested, usually for a fee, and it cannot be issued until the marriage has been recorded. That is why it is not available the morning after the wedding.
• You cannot order it for them, and you do not need to. Telling them it exists, that it comes from the County Clerk that issued the license, and that they will want it before a name change, is the useful thing.

Everything past that — how many copies, what they cost, how long they take — is the County Clerk that issued the license's to answer, and it varies from county to county.