OPINION: The wedding fee

Thanks to Senate Bill 068, sponsored by state Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, and signed into law by Gov. Bill Ritter, the cost of getting a marriage license will triple July 1, from $10 to $30. The additional money will go to the Colorado Domestic Abuse Program, meaning prospective brides and grooms are targeted to fund solutions to a problem that likely has nothing to do with their own lives.

Here's how prospective couples should respond to this overnight tripling of a fee: Don't pay it. Simply decline to buy a marriage license, which is completely unnecessary to begin with.

A marriage is nothing other than a contract - written, spoken or merely understood - between two adults. No place understands this better than the state of Colorado, which recognizes a heterosexual couple as fully married if they simply choose to present themselves as married to their friends and the greater community.

In Colorado, a couple can stand alone in the living room and declare themselves married.

Or, the couple may find a pastor, priest, rabbi, rimpoche, or other spiritual leaders to lead them through vows of marriage. While some third party providers of marriage services may require a state license, they are under no obligation to do so and can often be convinced to perform services without a license. The license does absolutely nothing to validate a marriage in Colorado that isn't accomplished by mutual vows of "I do."

By contrast, the act of getting a marriage license involves red tape and bureaucrats who care nothing about a couple's love for one another.

Here are some of the rules: The license must be used within 30 days of issue; the fee is payable only in cash; the bride and groom must complete the application form, and at least one must appear at the clerk and recorder's office in person; if both parties appear in person, they must appear together; if one of the parties cannot appear in person, he or she must complete an affidavit and the signature must be notarized. That, vs. "I do" in the privacy of a home, in some other favorite place, or before friends and family gathered in a religious institution. Why would anyone do this? Is it fun to spend $30 for absolutely no reason?

Anyone who believes a marriage license serves some purpose should ask five or 10 couples who've been married for 10 years or more the following question: "When is the last time someone asked to see your marriage license, or when is the last time you actually used the license?"

Mostly, the answer will be "never."

States began issuing marriage licenses in the United States as a way to regulate interracial couples who wanted to wed. They are an outdated mode of distasteful state control that has evolved into the sale of a license for no purpose other than to levy a fee.

State government should have no role in a marriage, unless and until that marriage becomes the topic of a child custody and/or property dispute in need of courtroom resolution. In that unfortunate circumstance, the marriage license continues to play no role.

So, prospective newlyweds, show the state how you feel about an overnight tripling of a fee that targets only new loving couples to pay for a problem they didn't cause. Simply decline to buy a $30 marriage license, which has a value of zero.