Marriage Certificate Florida

Guide to Getting a Marriage Certificate in Florida

If you have gotten married in Florida, you may wonder how to apply for your marriage certificate in FL or how to get copies later on for your records or legal proceedings. This guide can teach you how to obtain a copy of your marriage certificate in Florida whether you have just been married with a Florida marriage license or whether you are looking for documentation of a present or past marriage.

Initial Applicants

When you are married, you will need to obtain a Florida marriage license before you can be given a marriage certificate in FL. Your marriage license will be given to the Clerk of the Court, who will file and record it in the county courthouse where the marriage took place. After the clerk files a copy, he or she will send it to the state Department of Health, which maintains your marriage certificate in Florida at the state level. The process of having the license sent and recorded by the state can take up to 60 days, so it can be difficult to obtain a marriage certificate until these 60 days have passed. If you need proof of your marriage to show a court, you may have to contact the County Clerk in the county where the marriage took place in to get your initial marriage certificate in FL.

Getting a Copy

If you are seeking a copy of a marriage certificate in Florida for any marriage that took place after June 6, 1927, you can ask the state of Florida's Department of Health to give you a copy. You can find an application for obtaining a copy of a marriage certificate in FL. The form is available in several languages.

You may also seek a commemorative certification in addition to a computer generated certification, if you wish to display your marriage certificate from Florida as a piece of personal memorabilia. A commemorative marriage certificate in Florida is signed by the current governor of Florida, as well as the State Registrar of Vital Statistics. Instead of a computer printout, these certificates have calligraphy fonts and a gold state seal. While a regular copy of a marriage certificate costs only four dollars, the commemorative certificates are $30. To find a marriage certificate in FL from before June 6, 1927 will require you to make a request from your county clerk.

Who is Eligible To Get a Copy?

While a marriage may seem like a private ceremony, a marriage certificate in Florida is a public record, and may be ordered by anyone who wants to see the legal record of a marriage, whether or not they are a family member. Anyone can order a marriage certificate in FL for any marriage that took place in the state. If you are not sure what year a marriage took place in, you may include a range of dates in your search request. A $2 search fee applies for every year that must be searched for the marriage certificate in Florida.