Don't Let This Wedding Day Mistake Delay Your Marriage!

1 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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1:09

In this short YouTube segment, a couple recounts how, on their wedding day, they failed to assign anyone to safeguard critical items such as the marriage license and vow books, resulting in those items being accidentally discarded during cleanup. Jamie Wolfer responds with practical advice: before the ceremony, designate a single trusted individual—ideally the officiant or a reliable friend/family member—to sign, retain, and, if necessary, mail the marriage license to the appropriate government office. The advice emphasizes clear pre‑wedding communication, ensuring the legally binding document is securely handled, thereby preventing delays in the couple’s legal marriage.

Chapters

Honestly, we did not put anyone specifically in charge of holding on to our marriage license and our vow books and a few other very sentimental small things. Um, those did get thrown away during the cleanup process. I don't know how, and I'm not— it's no one's fault. Everyone was just trying to help. Technically, my husband and I are just playing house right now. We're not actually legally married, and we won't be legally married for a couple more weeks until we can get a new marriage license and have our officiant sign it. Make sure someone is specifically in charge of holding on to those things and putting them in a very secure spot and knowing exactly where they are.
When it comes to your marriage license, sign it with your officiant and send it home with them. Okay. And request that they will take it home. Have this conversation ahead of time so where you can just be like, hey, once we sign it, can you send it in for us? Will you be responsible for doing that? We will make sure everything's taken care of. We'll even put a stamp on the outside of it if it requires one. But we just want to make sure that the one legally binding document that we have from our wedding day goes home with someone, you know, whether it's a professional, whether it's a family member or friend. Frankly, that's not the part that I care about the most. I don't care who is doing the officiating for you. I just care that that is one singular task for one singular person to be in charge of.