The Marriage License Dance

When I looked up the marriage license info for James back in July, I understood the website to say that all he needed in her absence was Melissa's ID and the forms filled out. It didn't specify which forms, so I assumed it was the form everyone fills out to apply for a license. SO James remembered today that he had not taken care of that yet and called me to check on locations. I called a couple of the locations to verify hours and actually talked to a real person at one of them. I found out that Melissa needs to complete an "Absent Applicant" form. I actually saw the absentee form in July but the note accompanying it said it was only to be used by Military personnel or incarcerated persons. Anyhow… we do need this form even though Melissa is neither military nor incarcerated. It must be notarized and the ID presented to the notary has to be sent with the form to James for him to present with the application – original copy only. Unfortunately her DL is already in Texas so we had to 'overnight' her license back to Rexburg. [I put overnight in quotes because Rexburg is so special that overnight service takes 2 days.] Then she will have to send it back with the completed form. Blaaah!! Good thing we still have more than a week to get this accomplished. It took numerous phone calls to the city offices, to James and to Melissa and 6 emails from me to Melissa and 5 from her to me. But hopefully we all now understand what is required and the process is in motion.