American Weddings Blog

Folks looking to officiate weddings in New Hampshire might be able to sign up for a special marriage officiant license -- if legislation introduced for the state’s 2020 legislative session passes. The proposed license would “temporarily authorize an individual to solemnize a marriage.” 

Each limited-use license would authorize someone to solemnize the civil marriage designated on the registration form, and provide the officiant with proof of such authority from the secretary of state. 

New Hampshire allows ordained ministers and judges to officiate weddings. But for folks that don’t want to get ordained online by organizations like American Marriage Ministries (we’re are all about options here), this new license would open up the space to officiate weddings. ...(continued)

It’s been more than half a century since we put a man on the moon, but in some parts of the US, same-sex and interracial couples are still routinely discriminated against. It’s also un-American.  That’s why months after getting ordained by American Marriage Ministries, Tim Hooker found himself in demand to officiate weddings for couples that were turned away by mainstream churches in his area. 

I visited Tim earlier this year to talk about his experiences. Driving into Cleveland Tennessee, the first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of churches. It seemed like there was one on every corner, but they weren’t of much use to same-sex or interracial couples looking to tie the knot.

“In Southern Appalachia, the ministers probably weren’t going to do it,” Tim said. 

 ...(continued)

Late last month, an online church sued the Cleveland County Register of Deeds in North Carolina, alleging that the County’s Register of Deeds Betsy Harnage denied a marriage license to an unnamed couple because their officiant was ordained online. A few days later, local media reported that they were dropping the lawsuit. 

It turns out, the real problem was that the couple got married before applying for their marriage license – which is against the rules. You need to apply for the marriage license before the ceremony!

That's just the way things work. ...(continued)