Making Application

Making Application

Each party should complete your own designated section on the front side of the Application to Marry in Iowa and the confidential information at the bottom. Type or print legibly. Do not use all capital letters.

Legal Names

List your current full legal names as your names before marriage. Include your name as it appears on your birth certificate (i.e., your name prior to any marriage). Also list your legal names as they are to be after the marriage ceremony. Your legal names after marriage are determined when you complete the Application to Marry in Iowa, which is notarized and legally binding by law.

  • A name change acquired through marriage will not affect your name as it appears on your birth certificate. The name on the birth certificate is the name prior to any marriage and is asked for when establishing a child's birth record. If you were adopted, your legal name after the adoption now appears on your birth certificate.
  • Per Iowa Code section 595.5, applicants may adopt a legal name change through marriage. However, an individual may only have one legal name at any one time. Once the name change takes effect after the marriage ceremony, a court order or another legal action is required to change it again, except for obvious typographical errors.

Notarized Signatures

Each party to the marriage application must sign in front of an authorized Notary Public that is not a family member and follows all other criteria required of notaries public. County Registrars, by law, are authorized to provide notary public service for vital records purposes. You may also use another notary public service and return the Application to Marry in Iowa form to the County Registrar in the county you want your marriage record to be on file.

By signing, you are attesting that the information you provided on the Application to Marry in Iowa is correct to the best of your knowledge and belief and that you are legally able to marry. The notary public is required by law to ask for satisfactory proof of identification that also has your previously signed signature on it. Parties to the marriage application are responsible for reporting accurate and true information, not the notary public or the County Registrar.

Affidavit of Competent & Disinterested Person

An individual of legal age who is acquainted with both parties who plan to marry is required to complete the affidavit on the back of the marriage application and sign it in front of a notary public. This person must be unbiased regarding the result of the pending marriage and competent to enter a civil contract. A family member may serve as the disinterested person if he or she meets these criteria.