Quote Originally Posted by David Merrill View Post
Then take this Marriage Certificate and add an officiant, maybe even a few more witnesses. Find a justice of the peace or preacher to preside over the wedding to sign it and then publish it at the county clerk and recorder.
That's the kicker -- finding someone who will preside over the wedding. Everybody thinks they'll "get in trouble" even though there's no law to get them in trouble. Even the Supreme Court long ago acknowledged:

"As before remarked, the [marriage] statutes are held merely directory; because marriage is a thing of common right..." Meister v. Moore (96 U.S. 76 (1877))

Directory - A provision in a statute, rule of procedure, or the like, which is a mere direction or instruction of no obligatory force, and involving no invalidating consequence for its disregard, as opposed to an imperative or mandatory provision, which must be followed.
[Black’s Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, p. 460]

directory statute - A law that indicates only what should be done, with no provision for enforcement.
[Black's Law Dictionary, Seventh Edition, p. 1420]

Unfortunately, we live in a nation of cowards (even those who profess to trust in the Lord), though that's not news around here.