RSS FeedDC Weddings: How To Get Married In 3 Easy Steps
Step 1: Discover bureaucratic nightmare that is DC.
Step 2: Get blood test for syphilis despite how crazy & outdated that is.
Step 3: Decide DC’s not worth it and get married in Vegas.
Despite her online moniker, Mrs Columbo isn’t really a Mrs yet. We’re to be married this summer, right here in PQ, DC. A small, family only affair, we figured picking a caterer, photographer, and wedding dress would be the hard part. Little did we realize that the DC bureaucracy would be the biggest obstacle we’d run up against. Should you decide, like Mrs Columbo and I to get married in DC, hopefully some of the below can help.
First things first: get a blood test for syphilis (welcome to the 1940’s; why not test for the clap while you’re at it?) and when you get the results, take them to the DC Department of Health’s Public Health Laboratory. Your name & the date of the test are then put onto form DHS-366 (aka the “blue card”). $10 per card, checks only.
You have 30 days from the date of the blood test to apply for your marriage license.
Armed with DHS-366 you can now head over to the DC Superior Court, Family Division, Domestic Relations Branch, Marriage Bureau Section to apply for marriage in DC. Here is where the Columbo’s got tripped up, not paying enough attention to the application. You have to already know who will perform your ceremony. You cannot get a marriage license in DC, and then just take it later to whomever you want to marry you. You have to know who the officiant will be prior to DC issuing a license. If you want to change the officiant later, you wait in line and pay again to change this information.
Thinking on our feet (we had not decided who would wed us), we tried to opt for a civil ceremony at the marriage bureau instead, no doubt due to the thoughtfully decorated door in the marriage bureau, leading to the chapel.
However the only available time for a ceremony on our requested day was 10 am. The clerk laughed when we suggested we’d prefer an afternoon wedding. Apparently they don’t do (or at least don’t do many) afternoon ceremonies. Not wanting to start out the day with vows over coffee (and not wanting to change our date) we opted to apply for the license, which would not be issued to us until we named the officiant.
This brings up another rule: DC requires a 3 day waiting period between the time you apply for a marriage license and the date you can pick it up. You pay on the date of application though, $45 cash or check only.
When we decided on an officiant, and I went to get the license, I had a wait of over an hour (despite the fact that I was the only person at the marriage bureau) because no one could get the printers to print the license out properly. The person who knew how to fix the printers came back from lunch an hour later and I was finally on my way.
To recap, for those of you scoring at home (or even if you’re alone), to get married in DC you have to make a minimum of 5 outings to get your license:
1. Go to Dr to get blood test;
2. Pick up test results from Dr;
3. Take test results to DoH;
4. Take results from DoH to Superior Court, apply for license, pay fees;
5. Return to Superior Court 3 days later to get license.
Mrs Columbo & I have to compromise our wedding plans, not the end of the world. I wonder though how many people just end up going to the Arlington Court House or to Vegas?
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Comments
CBD: Thanks! And yes, my thoughts exactly. If you’re going to require a blood test, at least test for AIDS.
jordan: Your license is only good for a wedding in that jurisdiction. A VA marriage license means you have to get married in the Commonwealth (I assume not the county you got the license in though, but I could be wrong).
No blood tests required in Virginia! (Had to learn that for the Virginia bar exam next week . . . thanks for the chance to review!)
Columbo – I’m sure many of your married readers can sympathize, getting a marriage license is a hassle EVERYWHERE!
yeah, i was going to get married in the district, as i’ve lived here for over 13 years, but it was just too inconvenient.
i opted for a civil ceremony in whatever county bethesda/chevy chase is in. it was a breeze over there, which is important when you have people trying to fly in and coordinate schedules.
Wow! DC doesn’t test for scrofula or scabies anymore? Kudos to DC for bringing marriage into the 19th Century!
As someone who recently successfully got married in DC, I can certainly sympathize. I spent many scary hours in DC government buildings, looking for forms and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I wish you well, and congratulations!
Congratulations to you both.
To the future Mrs. Columbo, Mr Columbo sounds like a keepr.
We have been married 34 years and it is great life for most. If Mr. Columbo worked this hard to set all of this up…don’t let me go. Plus I always like reading his posts.
What, DC didn’t require any pre-marital counseling? That’s he only outmoded thing they failed to do!
Anon 11:47, that is an antique (Art Deco) but is not the ring I ultimately purchased for Mrs Columbo (also an Art Deco Antique).
This may make me look totally humorless but I felt obliged to point out that the District of Columbia has the highest rate of syphilis infection in the United States. Infections among men in the District have been escalating for several years.
This is from the CDC:
RATES: District of Columbia ranked 1 among 50 states + DC + 3 territories: 20.6 cases per 100,000 population compared to the U.S. rate of 3.0 cases per 100,000 population.
http://www.cdc.gov/std/GISP2005/default.htm
Actually, Washington, DC is #1 in the US for syphilis, with an infection rate 7 times the national average, according to the CDC.
http://www.cdc.gov/std/Syphilis2005/DC05.pdf
It’s pretty damn high for HIV, too, but I bet confidentiality laws prevent them from requiring that test.
The longest wait I had in getting my marriage license in DC was the three day waiting period to get the actual license. The test took about 30 minutes and the wait at the marriage buraeu wa about 10 minutes. No big deal.
Speaking from experience, it may be super painful to get married, but let me tell you, DC has the divorce process down. Total wait time – 6 months if I recall correctly, one court appearance, total cost $81. So painless.
We must give credit where credit is due.
But it is an antiquated notion to think that most of the couples have not already slept together. If one has the disease, the other most likely does as well. So why make the test an obstacle at this stage of their relationship?
Having three to five separate appointments and almost $100 of bills (between tests and fees) certainly hurts the ability of lower income people to get married in the District.
I think that this community would be better served by supporting the institution of marriage and putting its resources toward educating all sexually active adults.
Having just gone through this myself, if you get the blood test done at GW Hospital, they do the blue card part of it for you, which at least saves you one trip.
FYI, you can eliminate a couple of steps by going to a testing lab that issues the blue cards themselves. We went to one that gives you the results, on the blue cards, within 15 minutes or so after they draw the blood. Then we headed straight to the marriage bureau.
One only hopes our nation’s capitol city no longer considers women chattel. I see that among the handful of states that recognize “common law” marriage, South Carolina requires only that the couple “intend for others to think they are married” to be so. (see http://www.unmarried.org/common.html ). And yes, you still need to get a divorce – in any state – if so married.
You can also get the syphillis test done at B & W Stat Lab at 3104 Georgia Ave. (near Columbia Heights). You walk in, it’s $20 a person, they do the test, you wait 30 minutes for the results, then they give you the DHS-366 Card and you can go straight to the courthouse.
One thing is for sure- the people working at the Marriage Bureau are dumb as posts. Double check everything they give you to make sure it’s correct and mentally prepare yourself for an unnecessarily long wait.
I went through this process last fall and I am most empathetic.
Though sypillis rates in DC may be high, I still don’t get the test. If you marry someone whose STD status you don’t know (and who may or may not have already passed that STD along to you), you have bigger problems. After all, DC doesn’t test for other STDs, addiction, or finanial insolvency, all of which are a threat to emotional and physical health as well as potentially marriage ending events.
By the way, if you are positive for syphillis, will DC not issue a license? Can you only get a blue card if you test negative or does that card simply indicate your status?
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Congratulations! Wow – I didn’t know you actually still had to get a blood test before getting married. I thought that was just back in the old days. And they don’t test for AIDS? You would think if they were going to test you for anything, it’d be that.