Places to elope in the middle of the night besides Vegas? See Details?

Question

Besides Las Vegas, are there places you can elope to in the middle of the night? I mean in Vegas you can get a marriage license in the middle of the night and get married on the spot. I thought in the earlier days you could do the same in some states. Are there still places like that around? I live in Ohio. I just wondered because we may wait until next year sometime to get married, but it could be sometime sooner. He said that he would like to do it spur of the moment. It is not spur ot the moment in the middle of the night or evening if you have to wait until the next day or a week day to go to a court house during business hours 8 - 4 or whatever and wait on a marriage license.

Serious Answers Only please.

Thank you ahead of time.

Answer 1

Sorry, but NO.  There is no where (other than Vegas) where you can get a marriage license late at night.  AND....even in Vegas you need to go to the Las Vegas Marriage Bureau, which is open from 8 a.m. to 12 midnight (NOT middle of the night.)

Most county clerk's offices in the U.S. are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., AND...it depends on what state you live in.  I live in Michigan and there is a 3-day waiting period from the time the license is issued until the time you can actually get married.  Some states have these "waiting periods"....others do not.

Google in "marriage license laws in X (your state)" and you will get more information.

Answer 2

In "earlier days", girls got married much younger- 18, 19.  They graduated from High School (maybe), got a job, and lived with their parents until they got married.  Many girls went to college just to meet a man, then they didn't finish their education because they got married before graduation. Parents had much stricter rules on their children then, and expected to approve of the boyfriend and the wedding.  For girls who were pregnant, or whose parents didn't approve of their boyfriend, eloping was an option.  It wasn't anything good- usually when people found out a girl had eloped, they knew something was wrong.  It wasn't anything any parent wanted for their daughter, but it has romantic ties to it- like Romeo and Juliet.  It was done at night, with the girl sneaking out of her parents house while they were sleeping.  She had to go when they weren't awake, because she was doing something they didn't approve of.  She couldn't walk out the front door in broad daylight.  They would have stopped her if they knew what she was doing.  The couple would have to wait until the morning to start the procedures of getting marriage license, blood tests, etc.  because none of the offices were open in the middle of the night.  But by the morning, the couple was away from their parents,- had in effect run away- and could do what they wanted to, providing they were both 18- or looked 18.  Girls who eloped were gone for a few days or a week, because they had to wait for all the paperwork to get done.  Then when they came back, they were already married, and Mom and Dad were fuming.

Eloped couples didn't get married "on the spur of the moment".  They saved their money, planned their escape, and waited for the courthouse to open.  If you really want to do spur of the moment, you have to go to Vegas.