Old Orange County Courthouse — Attraction in Santa Ana

Business is back to "usual" at the Old OC Courthouse.

Couples can have 0-2 witnesses sign their marriage license. Couples can bring guests for their onsite ceremony, which takes place in front of an altar again (room A or B) or at the superior courtroom if you pay the additional fee (highly recommended if you have a larger group). If you get married during a busy day (Friday or the one Saturday a month they are open), allow extra time in case you need to park at the nearby parking lots or structures since the little courthouse lot does get full quickly. The city contracted a third party, and parking tickets are being issued. You can pay with coins or credit card but need to be careful about the expiration time. You can use the convenient phone app, but you will pay 20 cents extra per hour (whyyy). Also, allow time for construction traffic. Many streets are either half closed or one way.

In summary, it is the most practical, affordable, and beautiful venue to get married in OC. ...

I'm only giving this place 3 stars because it is a beautiful building and my son had a lovely wedding service there, but the homeless people there detract from its history and beauty. There was a woman bathing in the women's bathroom sink and she was screaming obscenities at anyone who came in to use the restroom. There are more homeless people then there are people there with official business. Having to squeeze by people that haven't bathed in your dress clothes isn't fun. And they seem to be angry that you aren't homeless and they are. They make rude comments and give you dirty looks. The sheriff's deputies try and maintain the area but it is a public place so they can't do much. The woman who officiated the wedding ceremony was awesome. She was friendly and sweet. The ceremony was perfect. She made it seem less like the DMV and more like an official ceremony filled with reverence...

My friends got married here. It's not my cup of tea to wait in line with 6 other families for 10 minute use of a room for a ceremony.

The bride, her mom and a couple others had called days prior to confirm the use of an upstairs room. Upon arrival, they were told it wasn't available. It was mysteriously made available after much complaining.

While waiting, I looked around at the historical stuff. There was a large room upstairs that was mostly empty and had a small display of info. I'm not sure why they didn't have more cool OC law and order type history in that room. Wasteful.

Anyway, it's cheap to get married here and it should be because you spend significantly more time waiting in line than you do in your ceremony. The staircase is a nice photo op.

The other redeeming factor is that this was the outside of Briarcliff in American Horror...