SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) –Plan to get married in South Dakota? Potential couples can get their wedding license from a county recorder’s office on the day of the wedding.

But, remember this, both members of the wedding couple need to get the license together.

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“What people sometimes get wrong is that both people have to be there,” said Lincoln County Recorder Becky Vander Broek said. “Both parties have to be there with government IDs.”

The identification can be a driver’s license or a passport, Vander Broek said.

While there is no waiting period to get a marriage license, the “license is good for 90 days,” Vander Broek said. “We have couples who get them and the wedding is two months away.”

As long as the marriage is in South Dakota, a couple can get the license in any county in the state. The couple doesn’t need to be from South Dakota to get married in the state, they just need the state’s license.

According to the South Dakota Department of Health vital statistics report from December 2024, there were 5,471 marriages in the state in 2023.

Some of those happened in a county circuit courtroom. There does not appear to be a centralized list of county courts that still provide wedding services. But, Vander Broek said her office does have an informal list of county courts that do.

Clay County is on that list.

“There’s two of us that do the wedding ceremonies,” said Nadyne Zimmerman-Walker.

“I myself, personally enjoy doing the weddings,” Zimmerman-Walker said. “With other office work, it’s not always the good things we see. This is one of the positive things we get to partake in.”

Karen Teigen, the clerk magistrate in Harding County, agrees.

“It’s one of the happy things I get to do. It’s a joyous occasion,” Teigen said.

Teigen estimated she performs about 10 marriage ceremonies a year. That’s similar to the average of about 10 a year in Day County, said Claudette Opitz, the clerk magistrate.

In each of the three counties, couples may schedule a ceremony in advance, but sometimes, they just show up on the day of.

“Some couples do just show up,” Zimmerman-Walker said. The office is flexible, she said. If one courtroom is busy, the couple can usually be married in the second courtroom. The second courtroom is often the smaller, more intimate courtroom.

If the couples show up without the required witnesses, Zimmerman-Walker said someone within the staff is willing to step in.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Opitz said of those who show up for a wedding on the same day. “We make it work.”

Zimmerman-Walker estimated the office had 10 marriages in January. “I’m looking at what’s scheduled right now and we have six scheduled weddings,” she said.

Often, the court officiants use their own court-approved vows to perform the ceremony.

“I’ve not gotten any requests (for couples’ own vows),” Teigen said. “I use the vows provided to me by the state.”

“We do have a few people who have them (personal vows),” Zimmerman-Walker said. She will work those vows into her official script.

She may be performing the wedding ceremony but she is also willing to take photos of the couple and any attending persons.

“They may come in just as a couple. Some bring in families, kids, grandparents,” Zimmerman-Walker said.

The weddings are not only conducted only for the local county residents.

“Oh my goodness, we get people from all over,” Zimmerman-Walker said. “I’ve met people from all over. They even come from different places across the United States.”

Some couples may live in Iowa, Nebraska or other parts of South Dakota, while others come from farther away. Those faraway couples may want to get married in South Dakota because they have family here, Zimmerman-Walker said.

“We get couples from all over, North Dakota, Montana,” Teigen said. The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally brings people to Harding County for a wedding.

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is an example of why some counties don’t perform weddings, said Shawn Sorenson, the 4th Circuit Court Administrator. Sturgis is in Meade County in the 4th Circuit district.

“If Meade County did it, during the rally, the clerk would have innumerable requests for weddings,” Sorenson said. The office would not be able to get regular, daily work done during those days, she said.

Vander Broek said Lincoln County courts do not conduct weddings because the regular court schedule is very busy. She believes that’s also the reason why there are no weddings in Minnehaha court.

Sorenson said individual county courts have input on whether or not they conduct weddings. Considerations include staff size and workload, she said.

The presiding judge of each circuit court typically determines if the circuit or individual counties conduct weddings, Sorenson said. The judge takes input from the counties and considers the needs of the county, she said.