6 Tips For Getting Married In California Fast
Reach out to a local officiant
You and your partner might run into countless conflicting reservations if you choose to get married in the busy wedding seasons. Many florists, boutiques, and other wedding decorators are often so occupied with other jobs that they cannot tend to your marriage plans for months.
But, while a wedding can go on without a specific decoration or silverware, there is no marriage without a qualified officiant.
Reserving a wedding officiant as soon as you know the date for your marriage ceremony is one of the best ways to ensure your planning process moves quickly. Luckily, finding one in California is a simple process. There are plenty of county clerks and ordained clergy members throughout the state who can officiate your wedding on short notice or without an appointment.
Finding a local county clerk who can take a job without an appointment can save you time waiting for an ordained minister to become available and might be the quickest way to get married.
Quickly apply for a marriage license
A wedding day can be an elegant, romantic time for an engaged couple looking forward to spending the rest of their lives together. However, before that romantic event can happen, you will need to make a quick stop at your local county clerk’s office to apply for a marriage license.
Luckily, marriage licenses are easy enough to get in California. Some states have lengthy waiting periods before you can use your license and even require blood tests before you’re allowed to apply. However, California’s laws are more lenient and will only ask that you bring a photo ID or birth certificate when you pay your application fee at the county clerk’s office.
That being said, just because California’s marriage license application laws are relatively relaxed doesn’t mean you should push off the process. It can take time to find a county clerk who isn’t too booked to take an appointment, and securing your license early on can save you time waiting for the chance to visit.
City Hall Wedding offers marriage licensing advice in San Francisco if you are unsure how to apply for a marriage license.
Email invitations and create a wedding website
Finding the perfect invitations and sending them out to all your guests is one of the most time-consuming steps of traditional wedding planning. One of the best ways to save time on the invitation step is to digitize the process.
Handwriting paper invitations and mailing them out can take weeks, even for the most organized and dedicated wedding planners. However, writing a short email message and sending it to your guest list without needing to mail each letter can save you days.
Tech-savvy wedding planners can even create a simple website where guests can RSVP to your event and learn all of the essential venue details. You can link that website in your email invitations or post it on your social media pages to save you even more time.
Book the same venue for your ceremony and reception
Finding the perfect wedding venue takes intense dedication and a high degree of luck. Finding two ideal wedding locations that can accommodate your desire to get married in a hurry is nearly impossible.
Like many wedding decoration providers, wedding venues are often booked by other engaged couples months in advance. Therefore, attempting to find a separate location for your marriage ceremony and reception with availability on the same day can add months to your timeline. Additionally, you will need to coordinate plans with twice as many venue hosts and event planners with two different locations.
Looking to combine your ceremony and reception in one venue is one of the quickest ways to get married. It can minimize your planning time and the risk of any venue-related mishaps that push your wedding back even further.
Keep the guest list and wedding parties small
One of the most common ways weddings get out of hand and overextend their timeline is overlong guest lists. While it’s tempting to invite everybody you know to the biggest day of your life, more guests will mean more time planning seating and finding big enough food and beverage vendors.
Additionally, expansive guest lists can push back wedding timelines if you are too accommodating for people’s schedules. For example, guests outside California or the United States will need time to travel to your venue. However, if you push back your planned date to work for a dozen different people’s schedules, you could end up waiting months for the actual wedding to come.
An easy way to prevent the wedding planning and scheduling headache is to trim the guest list to only the essentials.
Build a small budget and stick to it
The quickest weddings often come from small budgets and couples dedicated to staying within that budget.
High wedding budgets are great for those looking to throw an extravagant wedding. However, costly marriage receptions give people more options on everything from table centerpieces to the reception venue. So, while it might be tempting to throw caution to the wind when setting your wedding budget, doing so can indirectly lead to you spending more time on the planning process.
The quickest way to get married is to keep the planning process narrow in scope. Look for your wedding attire at one trusted store, look for catering from one or two trusted restaurants, and don’t spend any more unnecessary time debating between dozens of different expensive options.
Plan The Perfect Quick Ceremony With City Hall Wedding
Just because you’re planning a quick wedding doesn’t mean the day itself has to feel rushed. With help from City Hall Wedding, you can turn rapid wedding planning into a thing of beauty and make your marriage ceremony a day to remember.
To learn more about planning your dream wedding in a hurry or about the legal benefits of marriage in California, get in touch with City Hall Wedding today.