Like most courthouses, this is a pretty old, pretty neat building. Parking is in the back, so you enter in the back, which is super confusing -- when there are stairs going down right in front of you, it seems like that's where to go. Which is why the boyfriend and I ended up in the basement barging into some supply room while in search of the county clerk... However, security is pretty much nonexistent, so we managed not to get into any trouble!
Properly redirected upstairs, the county clerk is just inside the (front) door. They have a separate little room where they do marriage licenses, so you don't have to stand at the counter. However, they had some difficulty with some of our documents, and given that we had to swear that everything was accurate, it seemed weird that they were trying to enter things that were not, strictly speaking, accurate. Look, guys, not everyone was born in Wisconsin and only has paperwork from Wisconsin! On the plus side, when we picked up the license, they invited our photographers behind the counter to get photos of us checking it over.
Scheduling a wedding was super easy, as they have a listing online of which judge to call for which month. The lady in the judge's office was very nice, and even volunteered that the judge's clerks can serve as the witnesses (which we took them up on). We were married in the judge's courtroom, and while the judge had clearly done the ceremony a few (hundred) times before, it was very nice, and using just our first names ensured that there was no mangling of our last names! One of the clerks even accompanied us downstairs to the register of deeds office to file our license, so the paperwork was relatively painless. And everyone told me how beautiful I looked and seemed very happy to have a wedding (clerk taking us downstairs: "We have a wedding!").
So while bureaucracy is bureaucracy, this really wasn't too bad. And hey, getting married by a judge is free (if you don't count all the taxes you've ever paid...)! read more
