THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS MUST BE MET BEFORE A MARRIAGE LICENSE WILL BE ISSUED:

Both parties must appear together with positive ID (Valid Driver’s license, or Valid State Issued ID, or Certified Birth Certificate, or Valid Passport, or Military ID Card).

RESIDENCY/WAITING PERIOD Residents and non-residents must apply for a marriage license 24 hours prior to the time of the wedding ceremony.

VALIDITY. The Delaware marriage license is only valid for 30 days from date of issue.

DIVORCED, ANNULLED, WIDOWED. All parties must produce a Certified Final Decree of divorce/annulment or a Certified Death Certificate. These will be returned at application.

If a female applicant has divorced and taken back her maiden name, she must bring with her the original or certified copy of the name change court documents. No photocopies accepted.

PAROLEES/PROBATIONISTS. An original letter of permission from the Probation Officer is required before a marriage license will be issued.

MINORS. All applicants must be 18 years of age to marry. Minors must petition Family Court for authorization to marry.

LICENSE FEE. The cost of a Delaware Marriage License is $30 Cash Only. We regret we are unable to accept checks.

Certified Copies. Certified copies are available from the County in which the license was obtained. Certified copies are $25 CASH, effective 8/1/2008

OFFICE HOURS. Our hours of operation are from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. (**Marriage Licenses are issued between the hours of 8:00am - 4:15pm M-F)

Marriage License Applications and Civil Ceremonies
·   Hours for applying are 8::30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
·   Only the bride or groom need apply.

The fee for a marriage license application is $35.00 -  CASH ONLY -  no checks accepted.
·  You will need to show a drivers license or birth certificate for both the bride and groom.

No blood test is required. We need to have Social Security numbers for both.

·   You must be married in Worcester County, if you obtain your license in this county.
·   You must wait until after 6:00 a.m. on the second calendar day after you apply for the license before
you can be married.
·    The license is valid for six months from the date of issue.
·    If either party is divorced, we need documentation of same, please bring papers with you.
If bride resumes her maiden name, we will need to see documentation of same.
·    If either of you have a deceased spouse, you will need to know the date and place of death.
·    If under 18, please call for information.
Should you have any questions, please call 410.632.5500 or toll free 1.800.340.0691

The address is:
Office of Clerk of Circuit Court
1 West Market Street Room 104
Snow Hill, MD 21863

Let’s look at some Beach Wedding Planning Services I have seen …….
One site states - “A Marriage License must be obtained through the appropriate channels.
Please call for details.”
Pastor Mary’s Response:
It isn’t really necessary to contact each individual wedding service to read the State and Local County requirements. Actually there are government sites with all of the details for Maryland and Delaware.
Marriage licenses are issued by government offices. There are only a couple of states, where anyone besides the courts can assist in the issuing process. There should be clear guidance and instructions available for you to read.

Here are the direct links to the states that are served locally.
Maryland’s Direct Link is : http://tinyurl.com/ce83vg
Delaware’s Link: http://tinyurl.com/cpvo3l

Example from a planning service:
“The fee for planning help, travel to your site, and performing the ceremony is $295.00.”

Pastor Mary’s Response -
The initial fee from this service is $295.00 - planning for a Minister Only Ceremony?
Travel to the site - Don’t they have to travel within a reasonable area anyway?
If the ceremony is farther than what can be considered a “reasonable” distance (40 miles and under for example), or additional unusual amount of time, (such as a ceremony on a boat), the fee may be increased. This is appropriate and should be expected.

Example from a planning service -
“A $100.00 deposit is needed to hold the date and the remainder is due 30 days prior to the ceremony.
Pastor Mary’s Response:
A deposit is certainly necessary to hold dates and times for ceremonies. After so many years, I have had couples who have had to cancel very close to their reserved time. It is unfortunate for them, and there can be many reasons why. However, the time and date has been reserved, for the Minister and Photographer for over a month or perhaps much longer. During that time, other requests have been refused to couples who also wanted that specific date and time. The Minister and Photographer need to be compensated anyway, as they scheduled time out form anything else for this ceremony. This is an accepted practice. The good news is - it seldom happens!

Example from a planning service -
“If you require a rehearsal there will be an additional fee charged of $150.00 and upward. The deposit is nonrefundable.”
Pastor Mary’s Response:
This is an acceptable and typical fee, and runs less than the same fee from a facility.
Again, in this case you are scheduling the time and talents of either the Minister or a trained Staff person to take a chunk of time to be with you. They will assure that you run through everything until you and they are satisfied that everyone in your wedding party is comfortable with exactly what to do during the wedding itself.
FOr very large wedding parties, it always takes more time and there is always someone who is missing or late. So expect to compensate for that overage in services. However, you should also know ahead of time what the upper limit of the time frame is for the rehearsal. In no case would the deposit be refundable - again due to pre-scheduling.

Example from a planning service -
“A date is not confirmed until the deposit is received. Penciled in dates are held approximately 10 days until confirmed.”
Pastor Mary’s Response:
There are always going to be overlapping requests for specific dates and times for weddings. Once you have verbally agreed that you would prefer your specific time, you must take care of the deposits right away. A reputable business will hold your place, even if a much large and more lucrative opportunity comes along after your phone call. However, if the second request send in their deposits in a timely manner and you don’t - then you will be bumped, and asked to reschedule.
Keep in mind that with Ocean CIty Weddings, you are NOT charged a higher fee for requesting a prime time weekend evening ceremony. Other planning services do charge more, and will lean towards scheduling them first in some instances. So just take care of the paperwork on your end.

Example from a planning service -
“There will be a $75.00 consultation fee for meeting with brides in Ocean City before the wedding. Packages do not include the gratuity to the minister. The gratuity to the minister on all packages is $200.00. It is payable directly to him prior to the ceremony.”

Pastor Mary’s Response:
So….let’s look at this again.

The initial fee is $295.00 planning for a ceremony. It does include travel to the site.
Don’t they have to travel within a reasonable area anyway?
If the ceremony is a farther than what can be considered a “reasonable” distance (40 miles and under for example), or additional unusual time, such as a ceremony on a boat, the fee may be increased. This is appropriate. Then the gratuity is additional…. okay.
However - on top of all that, a $75 consultation fee?? Shouldn’t that be included in the $295.00?

Let’s look at what this Minister Only rehearsal and ceremony could cost you: $295.00, a consultation $75.00, plus $200 gratuity, plus a minimum of $150.00 for a rehearsal, comes to a Grand Total of $720.00!!!

That’s heavy if you are indeed on a budget..
It is Pastor Mary’s feeling that If it is Minister Only, there is the gratuity to the Minister - period. It is perfectly appropriate to ask that a check be written in the Minister’s name for his/her gratuity. However, cash is generally more appropriate for a gratuity to the Minister.

When planning for your wedding, please be sure to assign someone to give the gratuity directly to the Minister. Put it in a card inside of an envelope with the Minister’s name on it, and ask them to hand it to him/her. Ideally this should be done before the ceremony has begun. In this way the Minister may leave when the service is completed, and not hang around waiting for a gratuity, not knowing who to ask about it. It is a situation that should be avoided.

The Beach Weddings that you have always dreamed of ~ Romanitc, Spiritual … with the sand between your toes, and the waves lapping up to shore as you share your love with each other, and for each other.

Ministry and Photography.   That’s it.    Well, except for the Beach Unity Ceremony that we created during our very first year performing weddings in Ocean City.  That is our Signature creation!! We were the first to create The Beach Unity Ceremony and offer it to our couples, and it has been our most favorited addition to our beach weddings.

That is what we do best.  We provide nondenominational Ministers, who welcome couples of all religions, mixed denominations, spiritual ceremonies for those who prefer non religious ceremonies, multi-racial couples…. You know what we do?  We welcome all couples who are in love, and want to vow their love to one another.

We welcome couples who wish to celebrate the beginning of their life together in a beautifully romantic way - and to have that start be in Ocean City, Maryland.

Beach Photography is a specialty of ours too. We began providing photographers who specialized in beach weddings when we first started our Wedding Chapel on the Shore 14 years ago, and it’s still our favorite photography.

For 2009, we made a huge decision to approach the way we work with couples, in an entirely different way.

In past years we have offered a variety of wedding packages, from simple Minister Only Ceremonies, to huge elaborate celebrations including receptions and bouquets, cakes and strolling musicians.   It seemed as if my time was spent totally and entirely trying to figure out the best things that I thought a couple would want, and then tried to provide it.  That isn’t what I loved.  I love the Ministry and Photography.

After going through many years of package transformations, we made the informed decision to leave it to those who actually provide the end services.  After all - they know all of the ins and outs.  The Restaurateur knows what he can cut. add, change or substitute to work with your budget.  Why would I want to offer you and list the length of an arm, telling you what someone else had chosen.

Isn’t the point of having a wedding at the beach - for the expression of your individuality as a couple?

In redesigning our services, we are proudly offering to you this season - and for every Beach Wedding season from this incredible year forward - Ocean City Weddings will be providing a nondenominational Minister for your ceremony - and a photographer.  In another post on another day, I will go into the exciting and surprising way in which we will be providing photography for you.  Now THAT is something you will want to know about…. but next time.

Back to the service that we have redesigned for you, so that you can get to know the merchants in Ocean City, who WANT to assist you in making your Beach Wedding Celebration, the Best Day Ever!

Listed on this site, and on three sister sites, we will have categories of all of the businesses that you will need to help you plan your wedding day.  Some couples will want to know about each and every merchant’s offers, and some couples will know exactly what they are looking for.

Other couples will have no idea exactly what they really want - and will have fun reading and researching everything.

Be sure to check out the videos that will showcase each venue’s location and what they offer specifically for Wedding Couples.

The audio interviews that are posted, will be an interview with the merchant, who will walk you through exactly what they have to offer specifically for the couples who want to be married in Ocean City.

That’s enough for the moment.  Check back for the next post.  It’s going to be filled with a lot more of the cutting edge changes we are putting in place.  You have to keep up with the times.

Until next time - Pastor Mary

You can contact me directly at   PastorMaryMazzullo@comcast.net