The day has finally arrived – you can now call your boyfriend your fiancé. He has finally proposed after waiting for 2,000 years for that to happen … you never thought it would come, but it did. Now comes the daunting task of planning a small wedding.

Yes. Small wedding.

Apparently, he has been saving up on a house to surprise you before he popped the most important question. So now, since you have a house, you have a very limited budget for the wedding preparations and the day itself.

Going about the tasks may look easy. You may have even rehearsed it in your mind a thousand times a day since you said yes – from the wedding gown to the cake, to the guests, to the church, to the reception venue, the wedding favors, and maybe even the food. You can just taste the sweet scent of victory. But before all that, aren’t you forgetting something?

Uh-huh. The marriage license.

Most places require a marriage license before you can say your I do’s. The process may differ from state to state, county to county and even country to country. They each have their own rules and regulations. Make sure to research about the requirements first. For this one, you would need to visit your local clerk of court, city hall or county clerk. Most of the time, you will be given a list of the things that you need to accomplish first, so don’t expect to get it all in one day. It takes time … just like your wedding preparations need time.

The marriage license also becomes like a check for you. This is to make sure that you and your husband-to-be are legally speaking, allowed to be wed with no encumbrances. These hindrances can be the following: Pending divorce/annulment/dissolution, a lack of legal separation papers or worse, a current and valid marriage certificate from either party. These would declare your marriage petition null and void. (And just because you plan to wed in a different state doesn’t mean the authorities won’t be able to trace it back to you.) If you are up against any of these, then you (or your partner) would need to settle it first before making any more wedding preparations.

Of course, as with any license, it most often comes with a fee. Again, the amount of that fee will be dependent on the requirements of your state. Also, make sure to bring proper identification just so that they would know that you are who you are. A passport, green card and social security card are all valid proof of identification and should always be brought every time you need to go to your county clerk. If you do not have these, bring your birth certificate.

Usually (and ideally), it will only take 1 to 3 days to secure a marriage license. But there are some areas which require a holding period, so it’s best to get this out of the way as early as you can so as to avoid crying at the altar.

Lastly, a wedding is not a wedding if it is not valid. An ordained priest, pastor or rabbi may marry you since they are religious authorities. If you are getting married via a civil ceremony, make sure that a judge or a duly authorized government official should be able to conduct it.

Now that you have your license, you can now fully concentrate on other preparations at hand.