Search “how much does it cost to get married in NYC” and you’ll get one number everywhere: $35. That’s the marriage license fee, the same in all five boroughs[1], and it’s accurate. It’s also the smallest part of what the City Clerk path actually costs, because the process has rules about when, where, and how you can marry that add up in time off work, travel, and waiting.
Here’s every fee on both paths, itemized honestly, so you can decide which one fits your life.
How much does it cost to get married in NYC?
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Marriage license (all five boroughs) | $35[1] |
| City Clerk ceremony (if you marry at the office) | ~$25 |
| Government total | ~$60–70 |
On paper, one of the cheapest weddings in America. The catch is everything the table doesn’t show, and it’s why couples who can afford any wedding they want still end up reading pages like this one.
The costs nobody quotes you
1. You apply through Project Cupid, then show up in person anyway. Project Cupid, the City Clerk’s portal, is now the only way to begin a NYC marriage license, since walk-in service is gone[1]. The portal only schedules an appointment. Both partners still appear in person, at the same time, to be issued the license. We walk through the whole sequence in our NYC marriage license guide, and if you’re wondering whether the portal’s pandemic-era virtual ceremonies are coming back, we covered what happened to Project Cupid’s online weddings separately. Short version: those ended in 2021.
2. Appointment slots are scarce. Marriage Bureau appointments are released in limited batches, and popular dates fill fast. Couples routinely refresh the portal for weeks looking for two compatible openings. Your time is the real fee here, and there’s a reason our guide to getting married in New York without an appointment exists.
3. The mandatory 24-hour waiting period. New York law bars the ceremony from happening within 24 hours of the license being issued[2], and only a judge can waive it. So even with license in hand, a same-day wedding requires a court order. That’s a second errand for anyone on a deadline, whether that’s a benefits enrollment, a deployment, or a lease.
4. The 60-day clock. The license expires 60 days after issuance[2], so the license appointment and the ceremony both have to land inside that window. Two separate things to schedule, in a city where scheduling either one is the hard part.
Add it up and the “$35 wedding” is really two synchronized in-person trips, weeks of slot-hunting, a forced one-day wait, and coordinated time off. For plenty of New Yorkers that’s fine. For many, it’s the whole problem.
What does a marriage license cost elsewhere in New York?
The $35 fee is a New York City number. Outside the five boroughs, each town or city clerk issues licenses and sets its own fee, so an upstate or Long Island license runs on its own schedule and price list[2]. The 24-hour wait and the 60-day validity apply statewide either way. And if you’re comparing against the fully remote route, Utah’s online marriage license fee is $71, which buys you a process with no residency requirement and no in-person appearance.
The remote alternative, with the actual price
If your obstacle isn’t the money but the in-person, appointment-gated shape of the NYC process, there’s a second legal route: marry online through Utah’s remote-marriage program. You apply for the Utah license online, say your vows over live video with a Utah-licensed officiant and two witnesses, and receive a real county-issued marriage certificate. No City Clerk office, no Project Cupid slot, no 24-hour wait. Utah County has made this routine at scale: by our count of its public records, it recorded 30,706 marriages in 2025, a large share of them video ceremonies for couples who live nowhere near Utah.
The price is $349 for the ceremony service plus the $71 Utah license fee, $420 total, itemized on our pricing page. That covers the officiant, scheduling on your timeline including same-week and rush options, help with the license, official filing, and your digital certificate.
So the honest comparison looks like this:
- NYC City Clerk: ~$60–70 in government fees, both partners in New York, two in-person appointments you have to win in the portal, and a 24-hour wait.
- Online via Utah: $420 all in, fully remote, no appointment hunt, no waiting period, and you can be in different boroughs or different countries.
Because of the U.S. Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, a valid Utah marriage is recognized in New York and every other state, for taxes, name changes, insurance, and benefits, exactly like a City Hall marriage. We put the two processes side by side in City Clerk vs. online marriage if you want the full comparison table.
Which one is cheaper depends on what your time costs. If two weekday trips to a Marriage Bureau are easy for you, the City Clerk path wins on fees. If you’re out of state, on a deadline, working hours that don’t bend, or simply done refreshing an appointment portal, the $420 route is usually cheaper once your own time is in the math.
Ready to skip the appointment hunt?
Our NYC guide covers how the online route works for New York couples specifically, and pricing and availability is the place to pick a date. Most couples are legally married within days of booking.
This guide explains public government process information and our service workflow; it is not legal advice.
