Marriage License – State of Wisconsin

The State of Wisconsin has made some significant improvements in regard to the marriage license process in recent years. Previously if you were not a resident of Wisconsin you had to get your marriage license from the county that you are getting married in. Not any more!

You can get your marriage license from any location with the State of Wisconsin and it will be valid for any location within the state. Both applicants must appear together at the County Clerk’s office. You can search online for the nearest County Clerk’s Office for the location you are wanting to go to get your marriage license from. There is a 3 day waiting period which can be waived for a fee. Of course you will need such things such as a photo ID, proof of address, certified birth certificate and documentation of previous marriages.

For the license information itself, you will need to know what you want your married name to be. You will also need to know who your officiant is (name and address). Once you have the license, the license is valid for 60 days. One thing that is really important. Wisconsin DOES NOT provide a certified copy of the completed marriage license (after ceremony) to the couple automatically. The couple will have to request copies and pay for them.

While this may be an inconvenience, it is offset by the fact that your Officiant bring your completed and signed marriage license to any county as well and it is uploaded into their system within 24 hours typically. This means, if you got married on a Saturday, and your Officiant brings it in Monday morning, it is possible to get a copy of the certified license Monday afternoon.

Of course, this will depend on staffing etc at the county that you would like to get the certified copy from. Additionally it will depend if you Officiant mails it or drops it off to either the county it was obtained from or another county. Overall it is generally faster than Minnesota.