Courthouse Marriage .

[NavyDoll Ebony]

Me and my sailor have been together 1yr and a half and we are thnking about marriage in the near future. He's on deployment right now and he proposed to me over an email. Anyway he said that if we do decide to do it soon, we will have to have couthouse marriage now and renew our vowels in a few years when we both have saved up enough money to have a real wedding. Im not working right now, just about to start 2nd yr of college. My question to you guys is have any of you ever done a this before? What was your experience like? Paper work from the court and from the navy, how long should the process take? Does he have to take leave to come down to sign marriage license and then take it again for actual ceremony or could they make exeptions because he's in military? Once you were married, what was next for u two?  Thanks !

[rxl100]

If I remember correctly, once you are married your husband would have to enroll you in DEERS and you need a marriage certificate and identification.  You should be able to get your dependent ID right away, which will give you access to the Commissary, Tricare, and other benefits. This process should be fairly easy and should not take very long but as with all things military there are always exceptions.  I'm sure someone will be able to give you a more detailed explanation.  My husband and I had the typical wedding ceremony celebration when we got married six years ago and I don't remember the DEERS process being difficult at all.  I wasn't on his orders to Italy so I had to request to be sponsored and the Navy did not pay for my move overseas.  That was the bigger headache.  

[Emily-aaronsgirl11]

Here's my experience. We did a courthouse wedding in Washington last month. 

You need to look up the exact requirements or your state/county. Some have a waiting period requirement after you apply for the marriage license while others will waive it for military. Washington will not. So what we had to do was I printed out the application online and filled out my portion then had it notarized and sent it to him in Washington. He filled out his part, got it notarized, and paid the application fee. Then they handed him our Marriage License which was valid starting 3 days later. We then had to call a judge and schedule a time where he could marry us. We went in on a Friday evening, said our vows, signed the paperwork, took a few pictures, and the judge immediately turned in the license and paperwork so that it would be recorded and we could get copies of our certificate on Monday. I went in Monday and got copies (we got one free because he was military) and Tuesday he brought two to work. I believe they kept one and the other they just needed to see to add me to his Page 2. He also wrote down all my info like height, weight, eye color, next of kin, etc for the page 2. Monday I was also able to go in and change my name with the social security office. They just needed my number, license, and marriage certificate. Then they handed me a reciept that said I changed my name and what I changed it to. I was able to use that to keep going with paperwork like DEERs until I got my new one in the mail about a week later.  The next day we were able to pick up the paperwork we needed to bring over to the Pass and ID office to get me enrolled in DEERs. However, we weren't able to enroll me that day because I didn't have my birth certificate. 

To be enrolled in DEERs, you'll need your birth certificate, license, marriage certificate, and Social Security card. You HAVE to have these things. Or they won't do it. No copies, all original documents. And he is supposed to be there to enroll you. However, we were told that I could do it with a Power of Attorney. Once you're enrolled in DEERs though, you should only need two forms of identification such as license and SS card in order to get your ID card. You can do that without him as long as you have the DD 1172 form with you and it's signed. (We're told you get a 1172 form after they enroll you in DEERs, so if you do these two steps at the same time you shouldn't have to worry about that form). 

We've been married a month and I'm not yet enrolled in DEERs or have my ID card. And I'm still working on a lot of name change things, also. If you have your documents ready to go, the paperwork won't take long. But if you're going to be apart, it could be a little difficult.