Snafu

This afternoon, the plan was for Michael and I to meet over the lunch hour and get our marriage license. We were all prepared (or so we thought). Birth certificates in hand, driver's licenses, etc.

Around 11:40 a.m., about five minutes before we both would have been leaving our offices, it occurred to me that we were going to have to pay $40 for the license, and that I had not gone to the bank for cash. I called the town clerk's office to find out if they could take a check or a card. She said they could; good news all around.

But then she started asking me questions about whether we had this, and whether we had that. She asked about our birth certificates, and I said yes. Then she asked if they had raised seals. I explained to her that no, mine doesn't have a raised seal because it's from Washington State, and they don't do that there. She said that was acceptable. And she said, "What about your fiance? Was he born in New York State?" I said yes, and she said, "Well, does his certificate have a raised seal?" I had left it in the car, but I knew that it didn't. I said no.

Sooo... to avoid the risk of boring you with the rest of the conversation, I'll make it short. As it turns out, Michael doesn't even have a copy of his birth certificate. What he has is a "birth registration," which I guess is commonly given to new parents (instead of a certificate) in our county. It's good enough to get your child into school, to use as identification, etc. And I guess Michael even managed to get his driver's license with it. But you can't get a passport without a raised seal, and as we found out yesterday... you certainly can't get a marriage license.

*sigh* This was supposed to be easy. Now we have to jump through yet another hoop just to be allowed to be married! Michael has to submit a request for a copy of his birth certificate (which is NOT free, by the way) before we can go get the license. Luckily, it sounds like if he submits the online request this week, he'll get the certificate next week because they process them within two business days and mail them out. So it's not a TOTAL disaster.

Just a little snafu.