Bleah. Yesterday we got a letter from the county clerk-recorder warning us that they hadn’t received our signed marriage license yet, that it had to be in within 10 days of the ceremony, and that there were only 30 days left before it would expire if unused. (We picked it up at the beginning of March.)
So there were phone calls, voice mails and emails to determine who had it at the end of the day. There was web searching to find out what to do next. It turns out that the California family code explicitly states what needs to be done if a marriage license is lost after the ceremony but before it’s recorded… but it says nothing about what happens if you miss that 10-day deadline.
And this morning, I called the county to see if they had received it since printing the letter. It turned out they had. I only got part way through spelling my name before they finished it and said “It’s right here.” I didn’t ask any more – if they had it today, it was at least postmarked within 10 days, and that qualifies.