Marriage Ceremony Formalities in District of Columbia
At a glance
| Who may solemnize | Judges and retired judges; designated court clerks; religious and civil celebrants; temporary officiants; Council members; Mayor; or the parties (§ 46-406(b)). |
|---|---|
| Appointment or registration route | Clerk may authorize a temporary officiant for one marriage; authority ends on license filing; registration fee capped at $25 (§ 46-406(a)(4), (b-2)). |
| License and ceremony timing | License addressed to a particular authorized celebrant or witness; statutory waiting-period section repealed (§§ 46-409, 46-412). |
| Required declaration or form | No fixed spoken declaration in the ceremony provisions; return coupon certifies the licensed parties were united in marriage (§§ 46-406, 46-412). |
| Attending witnesses | No attending-witness number prescribed by the ceremony or return provisions (§§ 46-406, 46-412). |
| Religious or self-uniting route | A non-clergy religious society may use its own practice with an appointed person handling license and return; parties may solemnize (§ 46-406(b)(4), (9)). |
| Proxy or remote presence | §§ 46-406 and 46-412 state no separate proxy or remote-ceremony procedure. |
| Who signs the certificate | Named celebrant or witness certifies the return coupon; a second coupon is supplied to the parties (§ 46-412). |
| Return recipient and deadline | Return matching-number coupon to Superior Court Clerk in person or by mail within ten days of marriage (§ 46-412). |
Requirements one by one
Who may solemnize
D.C. Code § 46-406(b) lists judges and retired judges, designated Superior Court clerks, religious and civil celebrants, temporary officiants, Council members, the Mayor, and the parties to the marriage. The listed solemnizer must be at least 18. For a religious society whose custom does not call for a minister, the society's own practice governs its ceremony; it appoints a person to receive the license and make the return (§ 46-406(b)(4)).
Appointment and registration
A temporary officiant receives the Clerk's authority for one specific marriage, and that authority ends when the license is filed (§ 46-406(a)(4)). The Court may charge a registration fee, capped at $25 for that officiant (§ 46-406(b-2)).
License and ceremony
The statutory license is addressed to a particular person authorized to celebrate or witness the marriage (§ 46-412). The old waiting-period provision, § 46-409, is repealed. Sections 46-406 and 46-412 prescribe no fixed spoken declaration or attending-witness count; the return form instead certifies that the named parties were united under the license.
Certificate and return
The person named on the license certifies the matching-number return coupon, including the date and place of the ceremony. Section 46-412 also provides a second coupon for the parties. It gives no separate witness-signature line on the return coupon.
What trips people up
The return coupon goes to the Clerk's Office of the Superior Court in person or by mail within ten days after the marriage, even when the parties solemnize it themselves (§§ 46-406(b-1), 46-412). The statutory license form states a $50 default penalty. The text does not set out a separate proxy or remote-ceremony procedure.
Common questions
Can the couple conduct its own ceremony? Yes. Section 46-406(b)(9) expressly lists the parties among authorized solemnizers, and subsection (b-1) applies the return rule to them.
Is a temporary officiant's authority open ended? No. Under § 46-406(a)(4), it is for a specific marriage and ends on filing of that license.
Does the return coupon need a witness signature? The prescribed form in § 46-412 is a certification by the authorized celebrant or witness; it does not supply an additional signature line for an attending witness.
Statutes and sources
- D.C. Code §§ 46-406, 46-409 and 46-412. The source fields above provide verbatim excerpts, canonical section URLs and access dates.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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