Obtain your Nevada marriage license at the Clark County Courthouse at 200 South Third Street two blocks south of Fremont Street Monday through Thursday from 8am to Midnight and anytime between 8am Friday morning and midnight Sunday. The bureau is open 24 hours on holidays, but expect a long line anyway, especially on St. Valentine's day. It's on your right just as you enter the front doors of the courthouse. (Those slobs standing in line on the left side are not holding flowers. They're paying their traffic tickets.)

  The license fee is $55.00 cash greenbacks. The license is good for one year. (The marriage certificate is good forever.)

  Nevada requires no blood test or waiting period. You're only required to give blood at the casinos. Nevada law does, however, require that one of you be male and the other female. There are some things that just won't be overlooked. Also, you can't get married in Nevada if you're married already, even if it's to each other. (Renewing vows is not an official ceremony.)

  For the sheer poetry of it, here's Nevada Revised Statute Section 122.020, subsection 1: "A male and a female person, at least 18 years of age, not nearer of kin than second cousins or cousins of the half blood, and not having a husband or wife living, may be joined in marriage."

  You may compose your own wedding vows. Nevada Revised Statute Section 122.110: "(1) In the solemnization of marriage, no particular form is required except that the parties shall declare, in the presence of the justice, judge, minister, justice of the peace, commissioner of civil marriages or deputy commissioner of civil marriages, and the attending witnesses, that they take each other as husband and wife. (2) In every case there shall be at least one witness present besides the person performing the ceremony."

  The clerk may ask to see either a state driver's license, a state ID card, a military I.D., a passport, or an original or certified copy of your birth certificate, and to know your social security number. If you've been divorced, you should know the place and date your divorce became final. Nevada law doesn't require that you document anything, merely that you answer the questions on the marriage license form under oath: (1) city and state or country of residence, (2) state or country of birth, (3) date of birth, (4) father's name and state of birth, (5) mother's maiden name and state of birth, and (6) "number of this marriage" and what happened to the last one. If you don't know your social security number, or don't have one, you "must state that fact" to the county clerk who "shall not require any evidence to verify a social security number." In fact, "[i]f any of the information required is unknown to the person responding to the question, he must state that the answer is unknown." NRS 122.040. Nevada law requires your social security number, if you have one, to be on the affidavit of application, but not on the license itself. The clerk's website states: "It is recognized that non U.S. citizens will not have a Social Security Number." The license will recite your state or country of birth, which may be anywhere. The Certificate of Marriage states only where you presently reside and where the ceremony was performed. Only one of you needs to show up to get the license, so long as that person can answer all the questions about the other. You should probably both show up for the wedding.

  If you're under 18 you must have parental consent which can be given in person or in notarized form. If you're under 16 you must have a court order as well as the consent of at least one parent - after you have your head examined.

  Later you can get a fancy duplicate of your marriage license at the Recorder's office on the second floor of the Clark County Government Center, 500 South Grand Central Parkway, about a mile from the courthouse. Ten bucks. Twelve if you want it certified.

  While you're at the Recorder's office, you may want to order a copy of the marriage license of Elvis and Priscilla (1967) or Mickey Rooney and Eva Gardner (1942) (The first of 8 here for Rooney.), Betty Grable and Harry James (1944), Zsa Zsa Gabor and George Sanders (1949), Rita Hayworth and Dick Haymes (1953), Kirk Douglas and Ann Buydens (1954), Joan Crawford and Alfred Steele (1955), Paul Newman and JoAnne Woodward (1958), Judy Garland and Mark Herron (1965), Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow (1966), Ann-Margaret and Roger Smith (1967), Michael Jordan and Juanita Vanoy (1989), Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford (1991), or Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra (1998). (Elvis said "Ah do" in a suite at the Aladdin.)

  For more details, or if you don't believe us, and why should you, see the marriage license information from the Clerk of Clark County. You can download the license application from the clerk's website, but the filled-out application must be presented to the clerk in person.