How to plan a courthouse wedding, working back from the appointment

A courthouse wedding is the simplest wedding there is, and still the one people most often get wrong on the day. Not because it is hard, but because every office has its own rules, and they are strict: the wrong license date, a late arrival or one guest too many can move your wedding. This guide takes two real offices, the Clark County civil marriage office in Las Vegas and a justice of the peace court in Austin, Texas, and plans one wedding at each, in the order you would do it.

Step 1: Choose the office and read its rules

"Courthouse wedding" covers a few different places: a county clerk's civil marriage office, a city hall, a judge or justice of the peace in their courtroom. Whichever you choose, find its own wedding page and write down five things before anything else:

1. The fee, and how they take it.
2. Which days and times they marry people, and whether you book ahead.
3. How many guests are allowed in the room.
4. Whether you need a witness, and whether they provide one.
5. The license rules: where you get it, how long you wait after, and when it expires.

Here is that list for the two offices in this guide, from their own pages in October 2026:

The two columns show why reading comes first. In Las Vegas, the limit is the room. In Austin, it is the calendar.

Step 2: Book the ceremony

Book the ceremony before you collect the license. The license window is counted from the date you are given, and that may not be the date you first asked for.

In Las Vegas, appointments are made only through the county's online system, and the page says plainly that if no slots show, they are all taken; check again each day. Arrive five minutes early: couples who arrive late have to reschedule. Bring the card you will pay with, because the office takes no cash or cheques.

In Austin, Judge Holmes's court at Precinct 3 holds a date only once the $200 is paid in full. A ceremony with vows or rings is held at weekends; a ceremony that only signs the license can happen on weekdays, and walk-ins are possible on weekdays after 11am if the judge is free. You can move the date once with seven days' notice; a second change costs another $200. Tell the court the names and pronouns you want used, or send your own vows in advance.

Step 3: Get the license inside its window

The license is the part with dates, so work them out on a calendar.

Austin, worked through. Say your ceremony is at 2pm on Saturday 20 March 2027.

• Texas makes you wait 72 hours between getting the license and the ceremony. Collect it by 2pm on Wednesday 17 March at the latest.
• A Travis County license expires if it is not used before the 90th day after it was issued. So collect it no earlier than Monday 21 December 2026.
• Both of you go to the County Clerk's office together. The license is $80. If you complete a state premarital education course first and bring the certificate, it is $20, and the 72 hour wait no longer applies.
• If you live outside the county and post the license to the court instead of bringing it, the court must receive it three business days before: by the Wednesday for a Saturday ceremony.
• After the ceremony, the signed license goes back to the County Clerk within 30 days.

Las Vegas, worked through. Nevada licenses expire one year after they are issued, and neither the county's pages nor Nevada's marriage law set a wait between the license and the ceremony. Fill in the online pre-application first; it stays on file for a year. Then both of you go in person to the Marriage License Bureau with ID and payment. It is open from 8am to midnight, every day of the year, so you can collect the license the evening before. The license is $102; by card, the processor adds 2 percent plus $1.25, which makes it $105.29.

So the fees in full by card come to $183.04 in Las Vegas ($105.29 and $77.75), and $280 in Austin, or $220 with the course.

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Step 4: Decide who comes

This is the step that needs the two of you to agree, and the room decides part of it.

In Las Vegas you must bring a witness, and you may bring up to eight more guests, no exceptions. That is ten people with the two of you. Other offices are smaller or larger, so ask.

A simple rule: if your list fits the room, invite them to the ceremony. If it does not, keep the ceremony to the room's limit and invite everyone else to a meal or a party afterwards. Do not ask the office to stretch the number on the day. Decide who is in the room by the same rule you use for the rest, and say it the same way to both families. Our guide to how many people to invite has a way to set the number together.

Write the list down even if it is short. A witness who cannot come, or a parent who expected to be asked, is easier to deal with three weeks before than at the door.

Step 5: Plan the rest of the day

The ceremony takes minutes. What surrounds it is up to you, and it is where most of the cost of a courthouse wedding sits.

• A photographer for an hour or two. Ask for an hourly rate rather than a package; our guide to what a wedding photographer costs shows how to compare quotes by hours.
• A meal afterwards. A restaurant's private room often comes with a minimum spend; our guide to planning a small wedding has a rule for when a minimum is worth it.
• Rings, clothes and flowers, sized for a short day.
• Telling people. If not everyone is invited, tell the people closest to you before the day, not after.

If a friend is to marry you somewhere else after the courthouse, or you would rather skip the courthouse and have a friend do it all, our guide to what a wedding officiant costs covers the paperwork for that.

Keep the dates in one place

A courthouse wedding has few tasks, but every one of them has a date that cannot slip: the booking, the payment, the earliest and latest day for the license, the day it goes back. Put them on one list you both see.

In Yes, I Do, your checklist is built around your wedding date, and you can add your own tasks with their own dates, so "collect the license by Wednesday 2pm" sits beside everything else due that week. The guest list holds the people in the room and the people at the meal after, and the budget keeps the fees, the photographer and the dinner together. Your partner sees the same plan on their phone and can tick things off too.

Questions

Sources

• Clark County Clerk: civil marriage ceremonies, for online appointments, arriving early, the required witness, the eight additional guests, the $75 fee with the $2.75 card fee and card only payment.
• Clark County Clerk: fee schedule, for the $102 license, the $75 ceremony and the 2 percent plus $1.25 card processing fee.
• Clark County Clerk: marriage license pre-application, for the application kept on file for a year, appearing together with ID, and the bureau's hours.
• Nevada Revised Statutes, chapter 122, section 122.040, for a license expiring one year after issue.
• Travis County Clerk: marriage license, for the $80 and $20 fees, the 72 hour waiting period and its exceptions, the expiry before the 90th day and returning the license within 30 days.
• Travis County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3: weddings, for the $200 fee paid in advance, weekend and weekday ceremonies, walk-ins, changing the date and posting the license three business days ahead.