In my lifetime there have been lots of changes, but the specific change that is currently bearing on my mind is the massive change in wedding ceremony requirements.
When Ricky and I married in June 1980 (almost 44 years ago), things were a lot different than they are now.
It was customary at that time for a male and a female to assemble their friends and family in a church to witness and help celebrate the happy couple’s nuptials. It was also customary for the family to host a wedding reception for the guests in the church’s fellowship hall with cake, nuts, mints, and punch.
When we married, Ricky was almost 19, and I was barely 17, so the minister, Ricky’s father, gave us our marriage license to take with us on our honeymoon just in case we needed to prove that we actually were married. I suspect my young age had something to do with that since Ricky was considered an adult, and I was still a minor. He could have been charged with statutory rape and taken to jail had we not been able to prove that we were married. We were given specific instructions that as soon as we returned from our honeymoon, we should take the marriage license to the courthouse for filing before the 30-day mark, or our marriage would not be legal. So that’s what we did.
Back then, in the state of Alabama, the law specified that a minister performing the wedding ceremony must be ordained. Others besides ministers could legally perform wedding ceremonies, but if you had a minister do it, he had to be an ordained minister.
Since the changes in recent years, things have changed drastically concerning legal marriages. So I Googled, “”What is required in Alabama to get married?”” The following is what I found:
- An Alabama resident must be 18 years of age to legally wed. You may be 16 years of age with parental consent in writing. Both parties must have valid photo identification, such as a driver’s license, state identification card, government or military identification card, or a passport.
Your marriage is valid or “legal” when an Alabama Probate Court records the properly completed, signed, and notarized Alabama Marriage Certificate form.
- The marriage form must be delivered to the probate Court within 30 days of the date the spouses’ signatures.
- Unless one of the marriage parties has been divorced for less than 60 days, there is no waiting period to obtain a marriage license in Alabama.
- There is no limit to how many times you can get married as long as you are only married to one person at a time. A person must be divorced prior to getting married to someone else.
- Although you cannot legally marry your sibling, it is legal to marry your cousin, even a first cousin.
Back in our day, both parties were required to have a blood test before a marriage license was issued, but that is no longer the case.
According to the information I found, a wedding ceremony is no longer required, it is “optional.”
Just get the necessary paperwork filled out, notarized, and filed at the courthouse within 30 days, and you’re married.
If you do choose to have some sort of ceremony, you can have a licensed notary public perform it for you.
I even saw the estimated cost of being legally married: $78.50 for the filing/recording fee. So it seems that when you spend tens of thousands of dollars for the perfect wedding, you are just throwing your money away.
Bonita Wilborn is Managing Editor, Features Writer, and Advertising Manager at Mountain Valley News and North Jackson Press and can be reached via email at [email protected].
