PA Marriage Law, Officiants – Bucks County, PA

PA Marriage Law, Officiants is a Bucks County Register of Wills PDF that reproduces Section 1503 of Pennsylvania's marriage laws, 23 Pa.C.S. § 1503, "Persons qualified to solemnize marriages," listing who may officiate a wedding in Pennsylvania.

The text is the statute itself, not a form with lines to complete. It has three parts:

• (a) General rule: the people authorized to solemnize marriages between persons who produce a marriage license issued under that part. The list covers justices and judges, former or retired judges who meet stated criteria, certain federal judges, mayors, former mayors who meet stated criteria, and a minister, priest or rabbi of any regularly established church or congregation.
• (b) Religious organizations: a religious society, institution or organization may join persons in marriage when at least one of them is a member, according to the organization's rules and customs.
• (c) Marriage license needed to officiate: no qualified person or religious organization may officiate at a ceremony unless the parties have obtained a marriage license issued under that part.

The printed text ends with the amending acts, the latest dated July 14, 2009 (Act No. 18). The document does not apply for a marriage license, name a fee or set a waiting period. The Bucks County Register of Wills lists those topics on separate pages, such as Applying for a Marriage License, License Fees and Waiver of Waiting Period, and lists the Marriage License Application Sample as a separate form.

Couples planning a wedding, and the people they ask to officiate, use this document to check whether an officiant is qualified under § 1503. It is a reference; nobody files it.

Under § 1503(a), the people authorized to solemnize a marriage are:

• a justice, judge or magisterial district judge of Pennsylvania;
• a former or retired justice, judge or magisterial district judge who is serving as a senior judge, or who is not serving but meets every criterion in (a)(2)(i) to (vi), including residence in Pennsylvania;
• an active or senior judge or full-time magistrate of the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle or Western District of Pennsylvania;
• an active, retired or senior U.S. bankruptcy judge for those districts, or a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, who is a Pennsylvania resident;
• a mayor of any city or borough of Pennsylvania, or a former mayor who meets the criteria in (a)(5.1);
• a minister, priest or rabbi of any regularly established church or congregation.

Under § 1503(b), a religious society, institution or organization may also join persons in marriage when at least one of them is a member. Whoever officiates needs the couple to have a marriage license first.

There is no filing deadline: this document is a statutory reference and nothing is submitted with it. The one timing rule it contains is in § 1503(c): no person or religious organization qualified to perform marriages may officiate at a marriage ceremony unless the parties have already obtained a marriage license issued under that part. In practice, an officiant should confirm that the couple holds the license before the ceremony starts. For the steps to obtain the license, the Bucks County Register of Wills lists separate pages on its Marriage Licenses and Certificates section, including Applying for a Marriage License, Requirements & Restrictions and Waiver of Waiting Period.