How to Get a Copy of Your Marriage Certificate: Step by Step by State

A certified copy of your marriage certificate comes from the government office that recorded the marriage, and in the United States that is either a state vital records office or a county clerk. There is no national office and no federal registry. Which office holds your record depends on the state, and in many states on the year you were married.

Fees, portals, and processing rules verified against official state sources in August 2026.

This guide walks through the request in order: find the right office, confirm you are allowed to receive a certified copy, prepare the application, choose a channel, pay the correct fee, and check what arrives. It ends with the two situations that send people back to the counter, apostilles for use abroad and replacements for a name change.

Step 1: Work out which office holds your record

Four patterns cover almost every state. Identify yours before you pay anything.

The state holds it. Alaska, Maine, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Rhode Island run centralized systems where the state vital records office is the working custodian for recent marriages. Alaska has no county layer at all.

Both the state and a local office hold it. Connecticut, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin let you order from either. Connecticut's registry runs from July 1, 1897 and town clerks hold the local original. Wisconsin lets any county Register of Deeds issue a certificate for any county, back to October 1907. Roughly 234 New Hampshire city and town clerks issue certified copies alongside the state division. Vermont carries a hard year split: the state health department issues certificates only for events from 2024 forward, with earlier years ordered from the Vermont State Archives or the town clerk that issued the license.

The state holds only part of the timeline. This is where most wasted requests happen. California's state office can issue certified copies of public marriage certificates only for 1905 to 1999, 2001, and 2008 to 2025, and cannot issue them for 2000 or for 2002 through 2007. Georgia's state office covers June 1952 to August 1996 and nothing else. South Carolina covers July 1950 through December 2023. Utah covers 1978 to 2010. Maryland starts on January 1, 2007. Outside those windows the county office is the only source.

Only a county office holds it. Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas route certified marriage copies to a county clerk, probate court, or recorder. Indiana splits by year: its state vital records office is the central repository for marriages from 1958 to 2012, at $8.00 per date searched with a certified copy included if found, and the county Clerk of Court holds everything else, including the license itself. Missouri belongs here too in practical terms: the state issues only a Certified Statement Relating to Marriage, a certified statement of facts rather than a copy, and the certified copy of the actual certificate comes only from the county Recorder of Deeds. Ohio's health department states plainly that marriage records are not maintained by its Bureau of Vital Statistics.

The county that matters is normally the one whose office issued the license, not the one where the ceremony happened. Minnesota counties spell this out, directing requesters to the county where they applied for the license rather than the county where they were married.

Our marriage and divorce records by state guide has the custodian, coverage years, and official link for all 51 jurisdictions.

Step 2: Confirm you are eligible for a certified copy

Most states restrict certified copies to a defined class of people, and the class differs.

At the open end, Washington's health department states that anyone can request a marriage or divorce certificate and does not require proof of identity or a qualifying relationship. Florida applies no relationship gate to marriage certificates, unlike its own birth and death records. Alabama treats marriage certificates as unrestricted. Michigan's statute allows a certified copy to any applicant, except as provided by rule.

At the restrictive end:

• Georgia limits a certified copy of the marriage application to the two parties.
• Nebraska issues your own record or your parents' record; anyone else must prove the relationship.
• North Carolina limits certified copies by statute to the registrant, a spouse, sibling, direct ancestor or descendant, stepparent or stepchild, a person seeking information for a legal determination of personal or property rights, or an authorized agent or attorney.
• Maryland issues to either spouse, a spouse's representative with a notarized letter of permission, or an attorney with proof of representation.
• South Carolina issues to a married party, an adult child of the parties, or a present or former spouse.
• Maine describes itself as a closed record state requiring a direct and legitimate interest.
• Utah issues to the person of record, immediate family, a legal guardian, or a designated legal representative.

Several states use the phrase "direct and tangible interest," including Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin. Hawaii states that if you cannot establish that interest, you are ineligible.

A few states close records for a period of years and then open them. Alaska, Idaho, New Hampshire, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wyoming apply 50-year rules; Delaware makes marriage records public 50 years after the marriage; Utah opens marriage and divorce records after 75 years; Montana opens marriage details 30 years after the marriage.

Step 3: Gather what the application asks for

The core of every application is the same: both spouses' full names, including the name each used at the time of the marriage, the date of the marriage, and the county or city where the license was issued. Missouri's county offices ask for both applicant names in full plus the ceremony date, and that is a fair baseline.

Beyond that, expect:

• Photo identification. North Carolina requires a copy of a valid photo ID and a signed application for every certificate request. Illinois warns that a request arriving without a readable, unexpired government photo ID will be returned unprocessed.
• Proof of relationship, if you are not one of the spouses and the state gates on relationship. Nebraska asks a child to send their own birth certificate showing the couple as parents.
• A notarized signature, in place of an ID copy in some states. Tennessee's application requires either notarization or a photocopy of a valid government-issued photo ID showing your signature.
• A search range. Kansas prices its fee as a five-year record search. North Carolina prices its search fee per three-year period. If you are unsure of the year, the search range affects the cost.

Step 4: Choose the ordering channel your state names

Use the channel the state itself publishes. Third-party sites that are not the state's named vendor add cost, add delay, and cannot fix problems with the order.

Online through a named vendor. VitalChek appears as an official online or phone channel on state pages in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, Utah, and Virginia name it for expedited service only. Alaska states that it partners only with VitalChek for online orders, and South Dakota and Tennessee each describe it as the only vendor authorized to take their online orders. Oregon names it as the state's contracted vendor and warns customers to order only from the state, a county health department, or VitalChek. North Carolina's only-authorized-vendor language is written about birth certificates; for marriage and divorce, VitalChek is simply the named remote channel.

Online through a state-run portal. Arkansas, Hawaii, Nebraska, Utah, and Vermont each run their own systems. Kansas also offers ordering through the IKAN mobile app.

Mail. Every state accepts a mailed application, and it is usually the cheapest option. Massachusetts charges $32 by mail against $54 online.

In person. Often the fastest route where it is available. New Jersey's Trenton walk-in center offers same-day service. Idaho, by contrast, states that it does not have a public counter, and South Carolina's state office listed in-person and drop-off services as temporarily unavailable, so confirm before traveling.

Two current exceptions deserve their own line, both accurate as of August 2026:

• California. Effective July 1, 2026, the state Department of Public Health no longer accepts applications submitted through online third-party vendors and processes only applications submitted by mail. Vendors may still forward a mailed application or send it to the county, but there is no live state online channel.
• Texas. The state issues only $20 verification letters, ordered through Texas.gov, and states that its office cannot issue a certified copy of a marriage license. Certified copies come from the county clerk.

Step 5: Pay the right fee

As of August 2026, state-issued marriage certificate fees mostly sit between $10 and $25.

At the low end, Kentucky charges $6.00 per certificate and Florida charges a $5 search fee that includes one copy. Hawaii charges $10.00 for the first copy plus $4.00 per additional copy and a $2.50 administration fee. In the middle sit Maine at $15.00 first and $6.00 additional, Alabama at a $15.00 search fee including one copy, Idaho at $16.00, Nebraska at $16.00, Mississippi at $17.00, Connecticut and Kansas and Wisconsin at $20.00, and North Carolina at $24.00 per three-year search.

At the high end, New York charges $45 online or by phone and $30 by mail, and Massachusetts charges $54 for a first copy online or by phone, $42 for each additional, $32 by mail, and $20 in person. Missouri charges $14 for a marriage or divorce record and $11 for each additional copy, which differs from its own $15 birth record fee.

Two things to plan for. Online orders normally add a vendor processing fee on top of the state fee: Maryland's $12 certificate carries a $13 internet surcharge, and South Carolina's cheapest online order runs about $29.85, because VitalChek processes online requests at the $17 expedited rate and adds a $12.85 service charge, with the $12 standard rate available by mail or drop-off only. And search fees are usually non-refundable if no record is found. Arkansas keeps $10.00 as a search fee when nothing is located, and Maryland states that if a record cannot be located the certificate fee is not refunded.

County fees are set locally and are not published in any central place. We do not quote county figures, because in Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, and the other county-custody states there is no single number to quote. Check the clerk's posted schedule.

Step 6: Check what actually arrives

Certified copies are not all the same document, and the differences cause real rejections.

Certified versus informational. California issues an authorized certified copy to the registrant and a listed group of relatives and officials, and an informational copy to everyone else, stamped as not valid to establish identity. South Dakota runs a similar split: certified copies go to a listed eligible class under its closed-records statute, and its flat $15.00 fee covers certified and informational copies alike. Wyoming's current application form prices a certified copy at $25.00, while the state's administrative code still reads $20.00 for a certified copy and $15.00 for a non-certified computer abstract, a conflict worth confirming with Vital Statistics Services before paying.

Copies made for a specific use. Some offices issue different products depending on where the copy is going. The District of Columbia's Marriage Bureau order form lists a regular certified copy for motor vehicles, Social Security, and divorce use at $10.00 each, an immigration and naturalization copy at $10.00 each, and a triple-seal copy at $20.00 each. If an agency has told you it needs a particular seal, order that product, not the standard one.

No photocopies at all. Kentucky's Office of Vital Statistics states that it does not issue photocopies, faxed copies, non-certified copies, or electronic copies.

Getting an apostille for use in another country

If you need to use your marriage certificate abroad and the receiving country is party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the certificate needs an apostille. If the country is not party to it, it needs consular authentication instead. Either way the sequence is the same, and it starts with the certified copy.

1. Order the certified copy first. Authentication authorities certify the signature and seal of the official who issued the document. There is nothing to certify on a photocopy, an informational copy, or a printout from a commercial database.
2. Authenticate in the state that issued the record. A state-issued vital record is authenticated within that state, not in Washington. The chain varies. New York publishes both links of it: a $3 County Clerk authentication followed by a $10 New York Department of State apostille. Hawaii's health department accepts apostille and authentication requests by mail only, and not through its online portal.
3. Confirm what the receiving country wants before paying. Some countries require a certificate issued within a recent window, some require a translation, and some require consular legalization on top.

Build in time for this. If you are ordering the underlying certificate by mail from a state office and then sending it on for authentication, you are stacking two processing queues.

Replacing a certificate after a name change

A name change is the most common reason people need a replacement copy, and the requirement is nearly always the same: a certified copy, not a photocopy. Agencies that record a new legal name generally want to see the seal.

Two practical points. First, order more than one copy at the start. Almost every state prices additional copies far below the first, because the search fee is the expensive part: Alabama charges $15.00 for the search and one copy, then $6.00 each; Wisconsin charges $20.00 then $3.00 each; South Carolina charges $12 then $3 each. Ordering three copies at once is dramatically cheaper than ordering one three times, and agencies often keep the copy you send.

Second, apply under the name on the record. The application asks for the name each spouse used at the time of the marriage. A search run against your current name will miss a record filed under your former one.

Using a marriage certificate for an immigration filing

Immigration filings normally require a certified copy issued by the civil authority that holds the record, and some offices issue a distinct product for the purpose: the District of Columbia's order form prices an immigration and naturalization copy separately from its regular certified copy. If the marriage happened outside the United States, no U.S. state office can produce or certify the record; it has to come from the civil registry in the country where the marriage was performed. Requirements for a specific filing come from the agency handling it, so confirm the current instruction for your form rather than relying on general guidance.

Situations that change the answer

• Confidential marriages in California. The state does not hold them. Certified copies come only from the County Clerk that issued the confidential license, and only the two spouses can obtain them. Family Code section 511 keeps those records closed except by court order on good cause.
• New York City. Marriages licensed in the five boroughs are held by the Office of the City Clerk, not the state health department and not the city health department. Records from 1866 to 1949 sit with the Department of Records and Information Services instead.
• Common-law marriage. There is no license and no certificate to request. Colorado's health department states that official verification of a common-law marriage is not available. See our common-law marriage guide for which states still recognize it.
• A marriage that predates state registration. Every state's central registry has a start date, and older records stay with the county or move to a state archive. Massachusetts State Archives holds 1841 through 1935, a window that recently extended when the 1931 to 1935 records were transferred out of the state registry.

If you also need a divorce record, the process branches differently, because the decree is a court record rather than a vital record. Our marriage and divorce records hub explains that split state by state. And if you are trying to confirm someone else's marital status rather than replace your own record, see how to find out if someone is married or divorced.

This page provides general legal information about obtaining public records, not legal advice. Fees and procedures change; confirm current requirements with the office that holds your record.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to get a copy of a marriage certificate?

It depends on the office and the channel, and no single figure covers the country. In-person service at a county clerk is often same-day; North Carolina notes that ordering directly at the county Register of Deeds is frequently faster than the state. Mail requests to a state office run considerably longer, and several states charge an expedite fee to shorten it, such as Alabama's $15.00 expedite fee and Idaho's $10.00 rush fee. Massachusetts State Archives, for historical records, states processing of up to 12 weeks. Check the current processing time posted by the specific office before assuming.

Can I order a marriage certificate online?

In many states, yes, but only through the channel the state names. VitalChek is identified as an official online channel on state pages in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin. Others run their own portals, including Arkansas, Hawaii, Nebraska, Utah, and Vermont. California is an exception worth knowing: effective July 1, 2026, its state vital records office no longer accepts applications submitted through online third-party vendors and processes only applications submitted by mail.

What if I do not know which county issued the license?

In a state with a central registry, the state office can usually find it from names and an approximate date. In a county-custody state, that is harder. Nevada runs a paid locator service for exactly this problem, charging $10 per name searched, and its state index covers January 1968 to September 2005 and June 2015 forward with nothing in between. Texas maintains public indexes of marriages since 1966 that let you identify the county before you order the certified copy from that county clerk. Ohio and Oklahoma have no state index at all, so you will need to work county by county.

Do I need a certified copy, or is a photocopy enough?

For anything official, you need a certified copy issued by the record custodian. Several offices go further and issue different products for different uses. The District of Columbia's Marriage Bureau order form prices a regular certified copy for motor vehicles, Social Security, and divorce use at $10.00, a copy for immigration and naturalization at $10.00, and a triple-seal copy at $20.00. Kentucky's Office of Vital Statistics states that it does not issue photocopies, faxed copies, non-certified copies, or electronic copies at all.

What is the difference between an authorized copy and an informational copy?

California draws this line most clearly. An authorized certified copy goes to the registrant and a defined list of relatives and officials and can be used to establish identity. Anyone else receives an informational copy, which carries the same record content but is stamped as not valid to establish identity. South Dakota also distinguishes certified copies from informational copies, releasing certified copies to a listed eligible class under its closed-records statute. If an agency rejected your copy, this distinction is a common reason.

How do I get an apostille on my marriage certificate?

Order a certified copy from the office that holds the record first, then submit that certified copy for authentication in the same state. The chain is state-specific. New York's published fees show a $3 County Clerk authentication before a $10 New York Department of State apostille. Hawaii accepts apostille and authentication requests by mail only. An informational copy, a photocopy, or a copy you printed at home cannot be apostilled, and a certificate from a private vendor's database is not a certified copy. Confirm what the receiving country requires before you pay for anything.

I was married abroad. Can a U.S. state give me the certificate?

No. State vital records offices register events that occurred inside their own state. A marriage performed in another country is recorded by that country's civil registry or by the authority that performed it, and a copy has to come from there. U.S. state offices also cannot certify a foreign document, so authentication for a foreign marriage record runs through that country's own system.

My marriage was a confidential marriage in California. Where do I get the copy?

From the county clerk, and only the two spouses can get it. The California Department of Public Health states that it does not maintain records of confidential marriages, that certified copies are available only from the County Clerk's Office in the county that issued the confidential license, and that only the two individuals named on the certificate can obtain copies. Family Code section 511 keeps those records closed to inspection except by court order on a showing of good cause.