NATCHEZ — They’re not looking to turn Natchez into Vegas, but a bill before the Mississippi Senate could make it a little easier for big columned, antebellum buildings to serve as little white wedding chapels.

A bill by Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, that would end the state’s three-day waiting period and also remove the requirement of blood tests before a marriage license can be granted, has cleared Senate judiciary committee and should go to a vote this week.

Sojourner said she drafted the bill at the request of several local tourism groups.

“It was brought to me by the leadership of Natchez because of the promotion the city is doing on destination weddings,” Sojourner said.

“There have been several instances where (couples) planned a really nice, lavish wedding, they fly in on Thursday and go into the courthouse on Friday to get their license. When they get there, (Circuit Clerk) Eddie Walker tells them they can’t get married until the first of the week despite the fact that they have planned a big wedding for Saturday.”

Walker said current state law requires that anyone applying for a marriage license has to let their license lie on the counter in the circuit clerk’s office for three days to allow for anyone to object to it. While the law allows out-of-town couples who have immediate family in the area to get a judge to waive the waiting period, Walker said those who don’t have relatives nearby are out of luck.

“If you come in here (Thursday) and have made arrangements to get married on Saturday at Dunlieth, everything has been laid out and the food has been bought, and you don’t have immediate family here, your license is supposed lie here for three days,” Walker said.

Walker said that a bill that would allow a judge or the clerk’s office some discretion in waiving the waiting period for out-of-towners would suffice.

“Otherwise, their only option is to come in and apply for their marriage license on Wednesday,” he said.

Mississippi is one of only 12 states that requires a waiting period and one of four that requires blood tests, Sojourner said. The state health department ends up losing money on the blood tests, she said, and removing the regulations will save time, paperwork and taxpayer funds.

The senator said she researched the issue and found a good deal of support for the bill amongst the state’s circuit clerks’ offices.

“In my research, I found there is no correlation between divorce and waiting periods to get married,” Sojourner said. “We don’t believe that Mississippi is going to become like Vegas.”

“We felt like this was a chance to kind of catch us up to the 21st century and get us in line with some of the changes other states made years ago.”