King County Marriage Certificate: What Happens After the Wedding
You said the words. You signed the license. Someone cried, someone took a few photos and then everyone went to dinner. Behind you, a piece of paper started its own trip through the county records system.
Here is where it goes, what comes back to you and what you have to ask for.
The license and the certificate are two different documents
The marriage license is permission. You apply, you wait three days, and it is good for sixty days after that.
The certificate of marriage is the record. It is the document you, your witnesses and your officiant sign on the day, and it is what the county keeps.
You are married on the day of the ceremony. Recording does not change that date. It only puts the county on notice about it.
Who mails it back, and when
Bronwen signs it, your witnesses sign it and we mail it to the county that issued the license. Not always King County. Any Washington county license is good at our chapel, and the completed certificate goes home to whichever county's name is on it.
Washington gives an officiant thirty days from the ceremony to return the certificate. We don't take thirty days. It goes out within a couple of days, because the only thing worse than paperwork is paperwork sitting on a shelf.
King County certificates go to the Recorder's Office at 201 S. Jackson St., Ste. 204, Seattle, WA 98104. After that it is on the county's clock. Summer is a busy stretch.
If you need a copy immediately, or prefer to walk it in or mail it in yourself, that is fine too. (Every county's process for ordering copies is a little different. Most can be done online but give the county 2-3 weeks before requesting. If you send the copy request copy form along with your signed certificate and check or money order, you'll typically receive a certified copy in 2 to 3 weeks. )
Nobody mails you a certified copy
This is the part that surprises people. King County does not automatically send married couples a copy of anything. Once the certificate is verified and recorded, it sits in the record until you ask for it.
A certified copy costs $3 for the first page and $1 for each additional page. A marriage certificate is normally one page.
Four ways to order:
Online through the county's records search at recordsearch.kingcounty.gov/LandmarkWeb, paid by card
By phone at 206-477-6620, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
By mail, using the county's marriage copy request form with a check, money order or cashier's check
In person at 201 S. Jackson St., Suite 204, second floor, weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
However you order it, the copy gets mailed to you. The county mails certified copies. Plan on about five business days.
Order two or three while you are at it. One stays in a drawer, one goes to Social Security and one goes to the Department of Licensing. Ordering a second copy later means paying the postage of waiting again.
Changing your name, in the order that works simplest
If you are changing your name, the sequence matters. Every agency checks the one before it.
1. Social Security
Start here. A replacement card is free and a certified marriage certificate showing both your former and new names is the evidence they want. The new card arrives in five to ten business days.
2. Washington driver license
In person at a licensing office, with your certified copy. You get a new photo and pay the new card fee. A church certificate or the keepsake version does not count. It has to be the certified copy from the county.
3. Passport
If your passport was issued less than a year ago, form DS-5504 corrects the name for free with a certified copy included. Past a year, it is a standard renewal at the usual fee.
4. Everything else
Bank, employer, insurance, voter registration, the airline profile attached to any trip you have already booked. That last one matters more than it sounds like it does, because the name on the ticket has to match the ID you travel with.
If your license came from another county
Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap, Whatcom, anywhere in Washington. The certificate goes back to the county that issued it, and that is also where you order certified copies. Fees and processing times vary by county, so check the recorder or auditor for the county on your license rather than King County's page.
The part before all of this
Everything above assumes you are already married. If you are still at the stage of wondering how any of this works, that is the part we handle. You bring a valid Washington marriage license. We handle the officiant, the witnesses, the signing and the mailing, and you get a ceremony in a pink shipping container in Georgetown instead of a hallway with a number machine in a county office.
Comments