The idea of marriage is a goal that many men and women aspire to. Unfortunately having a significant other who is serving time in a South Carolina prison can often make the dream of marriage a difficult task. It is possible to obtain a marriage license if you are in a relationship with an inmate in South Carolina; it is a difficult and long process, however.

Contact your future husband or wife’s prison to discuss the appropriate steps for applying for a wedding at the facility. Usually your significant other will need to contact prison officials to ask for a marriage application. Your significant other will need to fill out the application and you may be required to fill out any necessary information on the application too. Once you both have completed the application, have your significant other submit it to the prison. You will need to wait to hear back from the prison as to whether the application has been approved or not. This can take anywhere from several weeks to several months.

Prison officials will contact you as to whether your application has been approved, and if not, why not. If your application has been approved you can go to your local city hall to fill out a marriage license form. Many counties within South Carolina will not award individuals a marriage license, requiring that both individuals looking to get married be present. However this varies from county to county. The cost for a marriage license in South Carolina is $75.00. If you are continuing to have difficulties obtaining a marriage license you may need to wait until your significant other is released from prison.

If your application is approved, set a date to have your wedding ceremony. Once again this will usually involve you contacting the prison to arrange for a time to set up the wedding ceremony. The prison will also provide you with a list of approved marriage officials who can perform the ceremony for you. If you would like outside witnesses to attend your wedding they will need to be on your significant other’s approved visitors list. You can also have other prison inmates serve as witnesses too.