Greetings! My fiance and I have decided we don't want to wait until he gets back from IRAQ in Sept 2009 to get married... instead we want to get married on DEC 26th of this year!

Only problem is he is currently mobilized in Mississippi and gets back to our home state, Pennsylvania on DEC 23rd, we dunno if we can get all the neccessary paperwork done prior to him leaving...

Any suggestions? Or better yet does anyone have any clue if any of the administrative offices will even be open for us to try and process our paperwork on the 29th or 30th of Dec?

He is worried we wont be able to get everything done especially because a lot of offices closedown during Christmas.

I'm just trying my best to get things in order, he is in the field for the next week + as I type this so unfortunately he can't really do a whole lot and we are limited to talking via short text messages at the moment.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!

PS - i know what a lot of you who read this will probably think... "oh you just want to get extra money and benefits etc..." Let me assure you that is actually the LAST reason we want to get married and if we could do it without having to inform the Army and processing the needed paperwork we absolutely would, unfortunately it is required.

I don't know the rules for marriage licenses and all are in Pennsylvania but what I can advise you to do is call the offices you would be going to during that time and asking them.

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Armygirl4ever,
Proud Army Veteran 1993-2004
Now Proudly Serving in the Silent (okay, maybe not always so silent) Ranks

Thanks for the prompt response ArmyGirl!

... In Pennsylvania the typical turnaround time for a marriage license is 3 days. However if one of the applicants is ACTIVE DUTY (my fiance) then they will expedite the license and you can get it the day you apply for it.

I already know that the courthouse is open on the 24th so the plan is to get our license that day.

I'd love to call the offices but I don't have the phone numbers and with my fiance in the field, he won't be able to get them to me for 2 weeks or more...

2 weeks or more really shouldn't be too big of a deal except that we may lose our ceremony/reception site for the 26th- they want a definitive answer if we are using it or not because apparently someone else is interested... sigh.

Try google, it's a great resource.

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Armygirl4ever,
Proud Army Veteran 1993-2004
Now Proudly Serving in the Silent (okay, maybe not always so silent) Ranks

There's some good information here. If you're planning a civil ceremony, the Justice of the Peace may be willing to perform it at the reception place. My husband and I did it that way in order to accommodate a relative with a limited time window.