2023 Oklahoma Statutes
Title 43. Marriage and Family
§43-7. Solemnization of marriages.
A. All marriages must be contracted by a formal ceremony performed or solemnized in the presence of at least two adult, competent persons as witnesses, by a judge or retired judge of any court in this state, or an ordained or authorized preacher or minister of the Gospel, priest or other ecclesiastical dignitary of any denomination who has been duly ordained or authorized by the church to which he or she belongs to preach the Gospel, or a rabbi and who is at least eighteen (18) years of age.
B. 1. The judge shall place his or her order of appointment on file with the office of the court clerk of the county in which he or she resides.
2. The preacher, minister, priest, rabbi, or ecclesiastical dignitary shall certify on the marriage certificate that he or she holds credentials or authority from his or her church or synagogue authorizing him or her to solemnize marriages.
C. No person herein authorized to perform or solemnize a marriage ceremony shall do so unless he or she has good reason to believe the persons presenting themselves before him or her for marriage are the identical persons named in the license, and for whose marriage the same was issued, and that there is no legal objection or impediment to such marriage.
D. Marriages between persons belonging to the society called Friends, or Quakers, the spiritual assembly of the Baha'is, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which have no ordained minister, may be solemnized by the persons and in the manner prescribed by and practiced in any such society, church, or assembly.
R.L. 1910, § 3889. Amended by Laws 1951, p. 113, § 1; Laws 1961, p. 285, § 1; Laws 1971, c. 298, § 1, emerg. eff. June 24, 1971; Laws 1986, c. 24, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 1986; Laws 1989, c. 333, § 3, eff. Nov. 1, 1989; Laws 1998, c. 214, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 1998; Laws 1999, c. 305, § 1, emerg. eff. June 4, 1999; Laws 2022, c. 241, § 3, eff. Nov. 1, 2022.
