An independent registry of official procedure
What you need for a marriage license, county by county
Try: Las Vegas, Cook County, Travis County — county, parish, borough or city.
Often checkedLas VegasNew York CityChicagoHoustonNew Orleans
Or pick step by step
Where to apply, whether both of you must appear, what identification to bring, what it costs, and how long the license lasts — taken from the office that issues it, quoted and dated.
417 official sources · 65 jurisdictions · reviewed July 30, 2026 · no ads, no lead forms
Four separate things, often confused
Most of the confusion around marriage paperwork comes from treating these as one task. They have different rules, different offices and different deadlines.
- Getting the licenseYou apply to a specific office — a county clerk, a court, a recorder or a state registry. This is the step with identification requirements, a fee and, sometimes, a waiting period.
- Holding the ceremonyA separate event with its own rules about who may officiate and how many witnesses must sign. A license alone does not marry you.
- Returning the licenseAfter the ceremony the signed license goes back to the issuing office, usually within a set number of days, and usually as the officiant’s duty.
- Ordering the certificateThe certified record proving you are married is a later, separate request. It is rarely sent to you automatically.
Every state, checked one office at a time
All 51 states and the District of Columbia are covered. Marriage licenses are issued locally, so each square is a state — pick yours to see the offices we have reviewed there.
How this is put together
Every fact on a jurisdiction page is taken from the office that issues the license, quoted, dated and linked. Where an office does not publish something, we say so rather than filling the gap with a plausible guess — which is why you will see “not published” on pages that look otherwise complete.
60 jurisdictions currently answer the full question. Read the methodology or browse by state.