Sydney Butler · October 24, 2024 · 9 min read Thanks to the pandemic, many have put their wedding plans on hold. Even with restrictions lifting, there’s a lot of hassle and long waiting lists as venues deal with backlogs. So why not tie the knot online?
There are numerous sites online where you can get married, or at least where you’re promised that you can be legally married. We looked for the best services to conduct legal online marriages in the USA and some worldwide. If you’ve heard about so-called “zoom weddings” held using video conferencing technology and want to know where to begin, read on for all the details.
The Difference Between Legal and Ceremonial Marriages
There’s a big difference between legal and ceremonial marriages. Simply undergoing the marriage ceremony of your culture or religion doesn’t have any legal force. You need a marriage license from the authorities for the marriage to be recognized by the state.
In the US, you need to conduct a wedding ceremony with a wedding officiant to complete the legal marriage process. However, the ceremony itself doesn’t have to be anything in particular. As long as the officiant witnesses it and signs the license before sending it to the government clerk to have the marriage recorded and a marriage certificate issued.
Who Can Get Married?
Before the question of getting married through virtual weddings, a more critical question is the minimum requirements for marriage, regardless of whether that marriage happens online or not. In the USA, you have to be 18 years of age to get married without permission from an adult. However, there are exceptions in some states, such as Nebraska (19), Mississippi (21), and Puerto Rico (21).
If one or both of the people who want to get married are under the legal age in the state where the service is provided, they’ll need permission from a parent or legal guardian. In addition, you’ll have to provide certified copies of identification documents. This could be an ID card, birth certificate, or driver’s license. Be sure to check the marriage laws in the applicable state for any other limitations on who can get legally married.
Is Online Marriage Legal in Your State?
Suppose you’re a US resident or citizen. In that case, local state laws governing marriage are of utmost importance if you want your marriage to be legally recognized. Also, the marriage official must have the legal powers to conduct the wedding, and a remote marriage must be legal where you live.
One potential issue is that in many states where remote online marriages are legal, this has happened through an executive order by that state’s governor to enable social distancing. In other words, it’s not a law passed by the state legislature. This means the next governor could reverse the order. In many cases, these executive orders have time limits and need to be renewed at the government’s discretion.
The best strategy is to contact the county clerk’s office or the city clerk’s office and confirm whether you can get a marriage license online. This is complicated if the couple is in different states when they want to get married. It may also be an issue if the officiant is outside of state lines.
Online Weddings for Immigration Purposes
Suppose you’re looking for a way to get married for immigration purposes. In that case, we strongly advise that you clear this with the relevant immigration office first. The wedding services listed here are generally aimed at US residents within the USA who want to get married.
However, your situation can be more complicated, and you specifically want to get married so you can accompany your partner to their country of residence. In that case, we strongly advise that you get professional legal advice from an immigration lawyer.
Proxy Marriages
Some sites, such as Proxymarriage.com, use a special legal marriage method known as a “proxy” marriage. This is where a person stands in for someone at the wedding and signs the marriage license on their behalf. It’s also possible to do a double proxy marriage, where neither of the actual people getting married need to be present for the ceremony.
This is usually reserved for people in prison, the military, or other situations where they cannot physically be at the wedding. Still, the wedding has to be made legal. Therefore, we have refrained from listing sites that offer proxy marriage services. They are generally not meant to help conduct the virtual marriage service people are looking for.
A Small Disclaimer
The sites we’ve listed below appear to be legitimate places to get married online. Of course, we didn’t get married on these sites ourselves to test that. Ultimately the final responsibility lies with you to ensure that whichever service you choose has the legal authority to marry you.
That includes getting third-party confirmation from marriage license issuers in your region before paying anything to a third party. As mentioned above, the situation is time sensitive and may change by reading this. For example, all New Yorkers (in the whole state, not just New York City) received temporary permission to have online weddings. However, that ended on June 25, 2021.
1. Simply Eloped
To “Elope” means to run away and get married in secret without permission, which makes it a weird term to use if you’re selling online weddings, but the rest of the service is so well-thought-out that it makes up for it.
Simply Eloped defines “eloping” as a wedding with 20 or fewer guests. They guide clients through the entire process of planning their online weddings from start to finish.
That includes everything that happens during the actual ceremony, such as hair, makeup, flowers, video, photos, and everything you’d associate with wedding planning. Except that Simply Eloped refuses to call itself a wedding planner.
As for the legal aspect of the process, the company has an individualized approach to marriage licenses. The site provides advice to each couple based on the state where they reside.
2. WebWed
WebWed is a name that came up multiple times during our online search for legal online marriage services. Unfortunately, WebWed doesn’t make the best first impression with a popup that pleads with the US government to reject all online weddings not performed by WebWed. But based on various third-party reviews we’ve read, people are getting legally married with success.
The company states that all of its licenses are issued by US courts, and they also cater to international couples. WebWed works with states that do not require residency. Although this isn’t stated anywhere on the WebWed website, third-party sources speculate that Utah may be one of these states since that state has implemented fully-digital marriage license applications and issuing since 2019. WebWed also offers Apostille licenses for international couples who need their marriage to be recognized outside the USA.
3. Utahcounty.gov
If you don’t need the specific extra services that WebWed offers, you can go straight to the Utah government website and apply for a marriage license there. As we mentioned in the WebWed entry, Utah is the only state that doesn’t require the couple to visit the clerk’s office.
Of course, this website won’t give you any services related to your wedding ceremony, live streaming, or anything else. It just handles the legal aspect of getting married. So you still need to get an officiant and comply with the minimum requirements mentioned on the website.
This is the most cost-effective solution since you can make your ceremony as cheap and simple as you like, as long as the officiant recognizes it. Then after the officiant submits the documents remotely, and after a waiting period, you’ll get your marriage certificate without ever stepping foot in a government office.
4. Wedfuly
Wedfuly isn’t a service aimed at the legal side of getting married. Instead, this company sells professional live streaming services for weddings. The Wedfuly crew will help you put together a multi-angle, high-quality live stream that as many guests can attend as you want.
While you won’t get a marriage license from Wedfuly, you must have the license before your ceremony. The company provides step-by-step instructions on how to complete the marriage license process. After your ceremony, the officiant must sign the license and return it to the government clerk. Then sometime later, you’ll receive a copy in the mail.
Although you’re mainly on your own when it comes to getting the license, Wedfuly’s process means that you will be legally married. They have excellent resources on their blog to ensure you know what’s needed to make the marriage above-board from a legal angle.
The company recommends an Arizona marriage license at the time of writing since it’s legal in all US states, and Arizona allows online or postal marriage license applications. At least for the duration of stay-at-home orders.
5. MarryFromHome
MarryFromHome is another big-name we repeatedly ran across while looking for legit sites to get married online legally.
MarryFromHome’s rather attractive and simple website lists a host of services you can enjoy if you want to get, as the name says, married from home. Like WebWed, the service is open to anyone, not just US citizens. The service offers facilities to run the wedding event remotely and have events after the ceremony itself.
MarryFromHome handles all the paperwork with bureaucracy, for a price, of course. You have to fill in their booking form, upload all the necessary documents, and share the private Zoom link with up to 90 guests. The ceremony takes about 30 minutes, and you have the option to have the certificate signed by an Apostille to help legitimize it outside of the USA.
Happily Ever After
While getting married online might not be the fairy tale wedding you’ve always wanted, it’s the right option in many circumstances. It may even be preferable to a traditional wedding for some people.
If you get a professional video streaming package to cover your wedding day, you’ll have an excellent high-quality record of the day you said “I do,” which will last a lifetime if you back it up properly!
