American Wedding.

Captain Slow IRL

Has anyone gone over to the states to be married? Any tips, advice or anything to be warey of? It's only going to be a small event - maybe 40/50 people at it, hopefully in New York in the Long Island area.
Thanks in advance.

Captain Slow IRL

Just back from the honeymoon and myself and the wife had our wedding in New York. I'm hoping to impart some useful information to anyone else who wants to go down the same route. We only had immediate family members at it, to avoid arguements between extended family members and just keep the peace (still some complaining, mind!) Due to the small size, it was cheap, compared to what a typical Irish wedding would have cost us.

Anyway, down to what I'm here for.
Marriage License
To obtain a marriage license, you and your partner have to appear in person at the office of the NY City Clerk. with a valid I.D. (passport) and some way to pay for the license. If you get a license in NY, it's only valid in NY 24 hours after successfully receiving it and lasts for 60 days. If you want to get married in a different state, you have to apply for the license in that state. The license will cost $35 (costs €150 here:rolleyes:) and you will need a cheque or credit card to purchase it.

One tip to people though; go early in the morning, it can get very busy there.

I wrote off to the city clerks office for information a few months ago and this is the email I received back:

In order to obtain a marriage license in the City of New York, you do not need to be a resident of New York City or of the United States. There are no special requirements for non US Citizens.



All you will need is valid identification that is current not expired and a certified US bank check, credit card or money order in the amount of $35. No personal checks, debit cards or cash accepted. The Marriage License is obtained on the same day as your visit.



Forms of Identification Acceptable:
*You must have at least one of the forms of identification listed below:

•Driver License with photograph (from the United States of America or any of its territories)
•Non-Driver Identification Card with photograph (from the United States of America or any of its territories)
•Learner Permit with photograph (from the United States of America or any of its territories)
•Active United States Military Identification Card
•Passport
•United States Certificate of Naturalization (good for 10 years after date of issue)
•United States Alien Registration Card
•United States Employment Authorization Card
Payment Information


A money order can be obtained in any United States Post Office, Check Cashing places and most Pharmacies. There is a location in our area at 79 Chambers Street; a block and a half over from our office. Or you may use your credit card. We accept all major credit cards. Debit cards are not accepted.



Office Information

BOTH THE BRIDE AND GROOM MUST APPEAR IN PERSON. You are both required to sign the affidavit before our office clerk. There are no appointments. All of our services are provided on a first come first serve basis. You will be issued the license on the day you both appear in person and you will take it with you. If you have been divorced, please bring the divorce decree(s) with you. A certified translation for a decree issued in another country may be required.

Please Note: If the Bride and/or Groom are under the age of 18, there are special requirements. Please contact our law department for information at 212-669-8171.

Listed below is the information you will need to fill out the Marriage License Application:

•The application is an affidavit where you and your prospective spouse must list your name; current address; city, state, ZIP code and country; country of birth; date of birth; name and country of birth of your father and mother; Social Security number (if US resident); and marital history.
•When you sign the affidavit, you are making a sworn statement that there are no legal impediments to the marriage.
•If you were married before, you must list all prior marriages. You must include your previous spouse's full name; the date the divorce decree was granted; and the city, state, and country where the divorce was issued.
•All divorces, annulments, and dissolutions must be finalized before you apply for a new Marriage License.
•You may be asked to produce the final divorce decree.
•If you are a widow or widower, you must provide your deceased spouse's full name and date of death.
A blood test is not required to obtain a Marriage License in the State of New York .
Once you have the marriage license, it is valid for sixty (60) days.

You are eligible to be married twenty-four (24) hours after you have obtained it.

A marriage license issued in the State of New York is only valid for use in the State of New York. All of our offices are handicapped accessible.

Please note: If you are renewing your vows or having a second ceremony with the same spouse, please let the clerk know that you are obtaining a Second Ceremony License.


Marriage Ceremony at the City Clerk’s Office

You may return back to our office after the 24 hour period to have a civil marriage ceremony.
We have an office in every borough. Our locations are as follows:
Manhattan- 141 Worth Street, New York, NY 10013
Brooklyn- Municipal Building, 210 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Queens- Borough Hall Building- 120-55 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11424
Staten Island- Borough Hall Building- 10 Richmond Place, Staten Island, NY 10301
Bronx- Supreme Court Building, 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10451

You must bring the license back with you, a $25.00 money order or credit card and at least one (1) witness over the age of 18 with valid photo identification to attest to your ceremony. We do not provide witnesses.

Please Note: You are allowed to bring guests with you to your ceremony. The term “witnesses” only refer to those who are signing on the marriage license attesting to the ceremony. You may have at least one (1) witness over the age of 18 to attest to your ceremony and the maximum is two (2). They must have valid photo identification. They must have at least one of those listed above under Forms of Identification Acceptable. A witness can be anyone EXCEPT AN EMPLOYEE FROM OUR OFFICE. A relative or friend; they do not need to be a U.S. Citizen.

If you need to waive the 24 hour waiting period, you must first obtain the marriage license and proceed to Court and appear before a Judge indicating the reason why you wish to obtain the waiver. Only a Judge in a NY State Court of Law can issue a waiver. Waivers are not issued through our office. You may then return to our office with the judicial waiver, the marriage license, a $25.00 money order or credit card, and at least one (1) witness over the age of 18 to attest to your ceremony.

All civil marriage ceremonies are conducted on a first come, first serve basis. No appointments are made. Our office cannot estimate the wait time for marriage ceremonies. However, for Valentine’s Day and the days to follow, expect long waits at our office.

All money orders are made payable to "The City Clerk of NY".

Our office hours are Monday through Friday 8:30am to 3:45pm.

We are closed on all United States Legal Holidays.

You may log onto our website for more information at www.cityclerk.nyc.gov.

The marriage license is then filled out at the ceremony and the priest, in our case, posted it back to the city clerk. The clerk then sends out the marriage certificate to us.

Ceremony
We decided to have a religious ceremony and my wife's grandparents were married in a church in Brooklyn (70 or 80 years ago!) so we knew where we wanted it to be held. Fortunately, the priest who carried out our wedding was an extended family member of our wife and he sorted out a lot of stuff for us - he wasn't from the church we were married in but knew the Pastor and relayed information between us. The priest put us in touch with the organist and we were able to sort out the music with him through email.
To anyone wanting to go down the same route, have a chat with your local priest if they might be able to point you towards a church (they might be friendly with the resident priests) or failing that, get into communication with whoever is "head" over the church. There is a fee of about $400 for holding the ceremony but this may be more depending on the church.
Also, to have the ceremony recognised as a religious wedding here, you have to go through the same motions as having a wedding here. We had to do the premarital course and get our parish priests to forward our documents onto our bishop who in turn forwards them onto the priest who's overlooking the wedding.

After Party
After doing a bit of searching, we stumbled upon The Harbour Lights restaurant, which is down at the bottom east section of Manhatton and looks directly out over the Brooklyn Bridge. The food was excellant, picked off the regular menu. We had fillet mignon, roast chicken or rack of lamb as main courses - all excellantly prepared!
If anyone else is interested in doing similiar, give Tom Beggeley a call at the restaurant - very helpful and pleasant person to speak to. In the end we ended up paying $80 per head for a 4 course meal and all the beer/wine/soft drinks that we could consume.

Photographer
We googled photographers and picked out Perfect Photo & Video based on recommendations from past users. Plus, he was charging about a third what most other photographers were charging and his portfolio looked very impressive. We called into Peter the week before the wedding and had a chat - was very impressed with him; he listened to everything we were looking for and made some helpful suggestions without being pushy. Another bargaining tool - if you offer cash, you should get a discount so don't be afraid to ask! On the wedding day, he was there on time, was very unobtrusive and very friendly. I couldn't recommend any higher. For the entire family photo's, he took a photo with everyones camera, so everyone had a copy! The only downside is that there is about a 3 month waiting time before the pictures are ready - this is to give him time to correct lighting, etc in each of the pictures. But when they're ready, he said he'll send me out a dvd with all the pictures, all in high quality (ensure you are getting the highest quality pictures back and also that you'll be getting all of them as well)
We were looking at albums he had laid out, they all looked excellant, but on the recommendation of a family friend, we decided to farm out the photo album to an Irish photographer. The friend had their album done and it was very impressive - if you want to get in contact with the photographer, she's based in Cork city - click!

Limo
Again, looking at limo's, everyone seemed to be charging the same price and wanted to charge for a minimum of 4 hours. Talking to a friend of a friend over there put us onto NYC Limo Pickups They will do a package starting from 2 hours and up if you need it.

Flowers, Hair and Make-Up
Flower shops are everywhere and pretty cheap - bargain them down, they should give you a competitive price if you look like you're going to leave! Also hair and make-up should be farmed out to Irish beauticians/hairdressers if possible - the Americans have different styles that may not necessarily be to Irish tastes. Nail's seem to be very cheap, according to Mrs. Cpt Slow - about $12 for a french manicure and polish, not including tip.

nansheen

Aw you're amazing. This is literally all the info I have been searching for. I've messaged the city clerks office 3 times now with no reply.

We're leaving in 6 weeks so starting to freak out a bit.

It will be just the 2 of us.

Thank you for posting this and for all the tips too. Legend. Xx