To the chagrin of St. Joseph, Michigan, Governor Alexander Groesbeck announced on April 30, 1925 he was putting an end to instant marriages in Michigan, requiring a five day waiting period after a license was issued before a wedding could legally take place.
From the end of the 1800s through the summer of 1925, thousands of couples from Chicago would elope by steamer to St. Joseph for quickie marriages, making St. Joseph the Las Vegas of this period.
However, the new law would not take effect until August 27, allowing the summer brides ample time to tie the knot before the new waiting period took effect.
Source : Colleen Burcar, It Happened in Michigan (Guilford, CT : Globe Pequot Press, c2010)