Planning a Wedding in Los Angeles: License and Costs (2026)

Getting legally married in Los Angeles takes one LA County appointment and a $91 license (checked October 2026). There's no waiting period, and the license is good for 90 days anywhere in California. The planning traps are local: courthouse ceremonies happen on weekdays and can't be booked far ahead, each beach has its own permit rules, and sales tax went up to 10.25% on October 1, 2026.

Courthouse, your own venue, or the beach?

Most LA weddings take one of three shapes, and each runs on a different clock.

A County civil ceremony. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC on every form you'll see) marries couples in its own offices: 15 minutes, $35, a County deputy officiating, weekdays only. It's the cheapest legal wedding in the county and the hardest to plan far ahead. It's also a County service, not a City one. We found nothing official offering weddings at Los Angeles City Hall downtown, so don't build a plan around it.

Your own venue and officiant. A restaurant in Silver Lake, a hotel ballroom, a ranch in Malibu, a backyard in Pasadena. You bring the officiant: clergy, a judge, or a friend deputized for the day. The County license covers a ceremony anywhere in California.

A beach, park or garden. This can be the cheapest setting in the county or one of the priciest. Who owns the ground decides which, and whether you need a permit at all.

The marriage license: one appointment, three traps

You fill in the application online first and get a confirmation number. Then you book an in-person appointment at any RR/CC office, and you both go, together. There's no blood test, no residency or citizenship requirement and no waiting period. The license is good for 90 days, and the ceremony can happen anywhere in California.

What it costs (checked October 2026)

Cash, money orders and checks (with ID from whoever signed the check) also work. E-checks don't.

You may have seen headlines saying LA's license fee nearly doubled. In September 2025 the Board of Supervisors voted to raise the public license to $176, the confidential one to $220, a ceremony to $44 and a County witness to $26, and FOX LA reported it as done. In October 2025, a day before a scheduled vote, the Registrar-Recorder pulled the proposal for further review after wedding businesses pushed back, NBC Los Angeles reported. When we checked in October 2026, the County's fee page still listed $91 and $85. Look again the week of your appointment.

Public or confidential?

If you already live together and want a tiny ceremony, the confidential license is cheaper, needs no witness and keeps the record out of public view. For a big wedding with a best friend who's been promised the witness signature, take the public one.

Trap 1: appointments open only three weeks ahead

The County opens license appointments no more than three weeks in advance. New slots appear daily, first come, first served, and there's no waiting list. Arrive more than five minutes late and the appointment is cancelled. And you can only book a County ceremony once you hold the license (the express appointment below is the exception, because it sells you both at once).

So you can't book a courthouse wedding for a Friday in March back in December. Your earliest move is to be online the morning your target date comes into range. On r/AskLosAngeles, a couple who married at the LAX office said they had a few weeks of ceremony dates to pick from and had to choose their wedding day on the spot. Go in flexible.

With a private venue the window matters less, because the license lasts 90 days. Get it four to eight weeks out, which leaves time to replace it if something's wrong (a mistake means buying a new license).

Trap 2: your names are fixed when it's printed

If either of you wants a new middle or last name, you choose it on the application. California's Name Equality Act allows it for both partners, but it can't be changed once the license is issued, and first names can't be changed this way. County staff can't give legal advice, so settle the hyphen debate at home, before the appointment.

Trap 3: ID and papers

• Both of you, there together, each with valid photo ID showing your age: a driver's license, passport or alien resident card. Expired ID is refused.
• Anything not in English needs a certified translation, and the translation has to be notarized.
• If a divorce or dissolution became final in the last two years, bring a certified copy of it. Older than that, know the date. The same rule applies if you ended a State Registered Domestic Partnership.
• Under 18 needs notarized consent from a parent or guardian and a Superior Court order.

Getting married at an LA County office

Seven RR/CC offices issue licenses. All of them hold ceremonies, by appointment only and on different days, and every office is closed on weekends and County holidays. The County's branch page lists these days (checked October 2026):

Beverly Hills is the one couples ask for. A couple on r/Weddingsunder10k who planned a Beverly Hills elopement in two weeks took a 9:30 am ceremony and met their photographer straight after, which is the template we'd copy: the morning slot leaves the whole day for photos and a long lunch.

The express ceremony packs the license and the ceremony into one 45-minute appointment. If you're on a public license, one witness has to come to the license window with you, carrying ID. Family and friends wait outside. No witness? The County will provide one for $20. A confidential license needs none.

Add it up and a County wedding costs $126 on a public license, $146 with a County witness, or $120 on a confidential license, plus $1.75 if you pay by card. One reschedule is included; a second means paying the ceremony fee again. Outside officiants can't use the County chapels, so if your aunt is a minister, she marries you somewhere else.

Can a friend marry you in California?

Yes, two ways, and neither needs any registration. California keeps no list of officiants, and the County says plainly that you don't register with its office. That's looser than New York City, where every officiant needs City Clerk registration or a one-day license (our New York City guide has the details).

Online ordination. LA County accepts it. The County's FAQ does warn that some sites issue certificates "for entertainment use only", so read what your friend signs up for. Clergy ordained by a denomination outside California, even outside the US, can also marry you here, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Deputy Commissioner for a Day. The County swears your friend in to marry you. Mail the application with a $75 check or money order about two months before the ceremony; applications that arrive too early are sent back. Under a month out, add a $13 expediting fee. The swearing-in is a virtual class on Thursdays, starting at 10 am and lasting about an hour, camera on, photo ID ready. If your friend can't do a Thursday or lands the day before, ask for a Special Accommodation on another weekday: $13 more, if staff are free. The $75 isn't refundable, but if your friend never gets sworn in, it can go toward another appointment in the same calendar year. Your friend doesn't need to live in LA County, and the deputization is valid anywhere in California, even with a license from another county.

Online ordination is quicker; the County route suits a friend who'd enjoy being sworn in. Either way, give them this list:

• Read the license before the ceremony. California law requires it.
• On a public license, one witness signs (two at most). On a confidential license, nobody does.
• Sign, complete the officiant's section, and get the license back to the LA County RR/CC within 10 days.

Beaches, parks and gardens: who owns the ground decides

Whether you need a beach permit depends on whose sand it is, and LA has at least three answers.

LA County beaches and Marina del Rey

Weddings on County-run beaches need a Special Event Use Permit. Apply online no earlier than 90 days and no later than 3 weeks before the date. Applying doesn't guarantee you the date or the spot. The County doesn't publish the fee on its beach wedding page, and we couldn't confirm it, so call the Permit Section at (424) 526-7880 before you count on a number.

Santa Monica

The City of Santa Monica is the easy one: no permit for a wedding ceremony on its beach, first come, first served, as long as fewer than 150 people are on site. You can bring tables, chairs, an aisle runner, a small arch, canopies under 400 square feet and a stage under 30 inches. Amplified sound is allowed from 8 am to 10 pm. What's banned is the part of the plan that usually comes next: alcohol, glass, fires, cooking, smoking, tents with side panels, gas generators and vehicles on the sand. If you want a toast, move the party to a venue, such as the City's own Annenberg Community Beach House, which Santa Monica suggests.

Malibu

A public beach in Malibu, such as Zuma or Point Dume, means a County Beaches & Harbors permit, same as above. A private beach, or a house you rent for the wedding, needs the owner's permission plus a City of Malibu Special Event Permit from the Planning Department (310-456-2489, ext. 353). Not every stretch of this coast is run by the County or the City, so find out who runs yours before you apply anywhere.

City of LA park venues

The City's Recreation and Parks department rents out venues for 40 to 300 guests, among them the Brand Park Community Center, Orcutt Ranch, Wattles Mansion and Gardens, Sherman Oaks Castle Park and Point Fermin. Two publish their rates clearly (checked October 2026):

The fine print: the rental fee includes a $500 refundable deposit, a non-refundable $250 is due within 10 days of reserving and the rest 60 days before, and cancelling inside those 60 days costs half the fees. At the Lodge you also pay for 2 to 5 required security monitors, and if you serve alcohol, one of the City's contracted bar services has to supply every drink, soft ones included. Even so, a Saturday there is a fraction of the $16,400 The Knot gives as the average LA venue spend.

Gardens

Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge is the classic garden wedding. On its published price sheet (posted in 2024; ask for current rates), a ceremony and reception from 5 to 10 pm costs $8,000 in the Rose Garden (up to 170 guests) or $8,200 at Boddy House (up to 100). A ceremony alone, 5 to 7 pm, runs only on Fridays and Sundays, from $4,800. Catering is exclusive to Flora Events, site monitoring adds $350 to $850, and weddings run only from mid-March to mid-September.

At the Exposition Park Rose Garden, a photo session needs a picture permit: $70 general or $200 commercial, two hours at most, starting between 9 am and 5 pm. The garden closes every year from January 1 to March 15 for pruning, which rules out winter portraits there.

One warning about venue lists: if an older one still shows Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, it's out of date. The landslide-damaged glass chapel was taken apart in 2024.

Photos in parks

A friend with a phone needs no permit. A hired photographer might: LA County Parks says professional wedding photos in its parks need a FilmLA permit, while FilmLA says wedding shoots often don't, depending on the location. Ask the park before you book the session. Where a City permit is required, FilmLA lists a $104 application fee plus a Recreation and Parks fee of $75 a day for 1 to 14 people, or $150 for 15 or more.

When to marry: heat, rain and Santa Ana winds

Downtown averages from the National Weather Service (1991-2020 normals) show that LA's mild reputation is mostly earned, with a wet winter and a hot late summer:

About 82% of the year's rain falls from December to March, so a winter outdoor wedding needs a covered Plan B, and evenings in the high 40s need patio heaters. August and September are the hottest months downtown, and the inland valleys run hotter still, so a 4 pm ceremony on an unshaded San Fernando Valley lawn is one to rethink. Coastal mornings in May and June often start gray (locals call it May Gray and June Gloom): soft light for portraits, a letdown if you pictured blue-sky beach shots.

Then there's fire. The National Weather Service says Santa Ana winds are most common in the cooler months, from September through May, and that their hot, dry gusts raise wildfire risk. On a Red Flag Warning day, expect a venue to restrict candles and open flames. Ask yours what its policy is before you buy 200 votives.

And skip the sparkler exit. All fireworks are illegal in the City of Los Angeles, even the "safe and sane" kind, as the LA Fire Department repeated in June 2026, and the City's MySafe:LA campaign spells out that sparklers count. Other cities set their own rules, so if your venue is outside the City, ask. Bubbles, ribbon wands or LED wands photograph nearly as well and won't start anything.

If we were choosing: April, May or late October. Mild, mostly dry, and outside the worst of the heat, with the caveat that late October is still Santa Ana season.

What an LA wedding costs, with tax

The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study, based on more than 10,000 US couples married in 2025, puts the average Los Angeles wedding at $45,000, against $39,000 for California and $34,200 nationally (ceremony and reception, not the ring). The national average guest count was 117, at $292 a guest.

The Knot's separate LA cost page (Budget Advisor data, updated July 2025) gives these typical spends:

Food is the line that moves. In an r/Weddingsunder10k thread, an event planner put food alone in LA at around $250 a person, and the two cheapest weddings described there were restaurant private-room buyouts, not a venue plus caterer. Anecdote, not data, but worth pricing.

The 10.25% that isn't in the quote

On October 1, 2026, the countywide sales tax rose from 9.75% to 10.25%, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. That's the rate in the City of Los Angeles and other places without an extra local tax. Several popular wedding cities sit higher:

In California, tax applies to the whole catering charge, serving staff, plates and tables included. It also applies to mandatory service charges. Only a genuinely optional tip escapes it, and an amount the caterer adds to your bill is presumed mandatory even if it's labeled "suggested". A service charge written into your catering contract counts as agreed in advance, which makes it mandatory, so it gets taxed.

Say you have 100 guests and a caterer quotes $150 a person for food and drink:

So when a per-head price leaves out the service charge and tax, the real bill is about 35% higher (1.22 × 1.1025 ≈ 1.35). Multiply a quote like that by 1.35 before you compare it with one that's already all-in. The wedding budget calculator splits your total by category and per guest, so you can see what one more table really costs.

Budget for parking too. A planner quoted on The Knot's LA page puts it simply: "in LA, parking is like gold". If the venue has no lot, price in valet or a shuttle, and don't count on rideshares on a busy Saturday night.

Guests, traffic and hotels

LA is spread out, and guests won't grasp how far Pasadena is from Santa Monica until they're in traffic. So choose hotels near the venue, not "in LA", and tell guests which airport is closest: LAX, Burbank or Long Beach. Book a hotel room block close enough that a shuttle loop takes 20 minutes, not 90.

On a BrideSpark wedding website, the Travel & stay section holds each hotel's group code, rate and book-by date, plus free text for parking, valet and shuttle times, which is where an LA wedding's guest questions really sit.

Plenty of LA families have a grandparent who'd rather read Spanish than English. BrideSpark runs in 7 languages, Spanish among them: you choose one language for everything guests see, and you can write your own text in two languages side by side, though guests can't switch languages themselves. Our guide to a bilingual wedding website and invitations has wording you can copy.

Couples flying in from another state or country can marry here as visitors. Our guide to planning a destination wedding covers the guest side: save-the-date timing and who pays for what.

Working back from your date

12 to 14 months out: budget, rough guest count, season. Book the venue (Descanso dates fall between mid-March and mid-September), then the photographer.

9 to 11 months: caterer if separate, band or DJ, officiant. Hold hotel rooms. If the venue has no parking, book valet or shuttles now.

About 3 months: County beach permit applications open (90 days before). City park venue fees fall due 60 days out.

2 months: mail the Deputy Commissioner for a Day application if a friend is officiating.

4 to 8 weeks: license appointment for a venue wedding (slots open three weeks ahead). For a courthouse wedding, book an express appointment, license and ceremony together, the morning your date comes into the three-week window.

3 weeks: last day to apply for a County beach permit. Final numbers to the caterer around now, with tax and service charge in the total. Draft the wedding day timeline.

On the day: license in hand. The officiant reads it before the ceremony, you sign, and it goes back to the County within 10 days.

After: order a certified copy for the name change.

The BrideSpark wedding checklist dates each of these tasks from your wedding day, including "Check marriage license requirements", so the license appointment comes up while there's still time to book it.

Frequently asked questions

Can we get married the same day we get our license in Los Angeles?

Yes. California has no waiting period, and LA County's express ceremony combines the license and a civil ceremony in one 45-minute appointment. Appointments open only three weeks ahead, though, so you can't fix the exact date months in advance.

How much is a marriage license in LA County right now?

$91 for a public license and $85 for a confidential one, as listed by the County in October 2026. A plan to raise them to $176 and $220 was voted through by the Board of Supervisors in September 2025 and then pulled before it took effect, so check the County's fee page before your appointment.

Do we need witnesses to get married in California?

On a public license, one witness is required and two is the maximum. A confidential license needs none. At a County ceremony, the County can supply a witness for $20.

Can a friend officiate our wedding in Los Angeles?

Yes. Your friend can get ordained online, which LA County accepts, or be deputized for the day through the County's Deputy Commissioner for a Day program for $75, applying about two months ahead. Neither route requires registering with the County.

Do we need a permit for a beach wedding in LA?

It depends on the beach. LA County beaches and Marina del Rey need a Special Event Use Permit, applied for 90 days to 3 weeks ahead. Santa Monica needs no permit for fewer than 150 people. A private beach or rented house in Malibu needs the owner's permission and a City of Malibu Special Event Permit.

Do we have to live in California to get married in Los Angeles?

No. LA County has no residency or citizenship requirement. You both need valid, unexpired photo ID and have to apply in person together.

Can we have a sparkler send-off in Los Angeles?

Not in the City of Los Angeles, where all fireworks, sparklers included, are illegal. Other cities in the county set their own rules, so ask your venue, or use bubbles or ribbon wands instead.

Sources

• LA County RR/CC: Marriage license and ceremony fees
• LA County RR/CC: Eligibility
• LA County RR/CC: Apply for a marriage license
• LA County RR/CC: Changing your name
• LA County RR/CC: Recording your marriage certificate
• LA County RR/CC: Ceremonies
• LA County RR/CC: Deputy Commissioner for a Day
• LA County RR/CC: Branch office locations
• LA County RR/CC: Marriage license FAQs
• LA County RR/CC: Who can obtain marriage records
• California Department of Public Health: Marriage officiant FAQ
• FOX LA: LA County approves marriage license price increase (September 2025)
• NBC Los Angeles: LA County pauses marriage license cost increase (October 2025)
• ABC7: Dismantling of Wayfarers Chapel to begin (May 2024)
• LA County Beaches & Harbors: Beach wedding permits
• City of Santa Monica: Beach weddings
• City of Malibu: FAQ
• LA County Parks: Filming FAQs
• FilmLA: Do I need a FilmLA permit?
• FilmLA: Common fees, City of Los Angeles
• LA Recreation and Parks: Banquet venues
• LA Recreation and Parks: Grace E. Simons Lodge
• LA Recreation and Parks: Friendship Auditorium
• LA Recreation and Parks: Exposition Park Rose Garden picture permits
• Descanso Gardens: Wedding venues price sheet
• National Weather Service Los Angeles: 1991-2020 climate normals
• National Weather Service: Mountain and valley winds
• City of Los Angeles: LAFD reminds you all fireworks in the City of LA are illegal
• MySafe:LA: Leave fireworks to the professionals
• CDTFA: Special notice L-1037, new sales tax rates from October 1, 2026
• CDTFA: Publication 115, mandatory tips, gratuities and service charges
• CDTFA: Regulation 1603, taxable sales of food products (caterers)
• The Knot: Average wedding cost (2026 Real Weddings Study)
• The Knot: Average cost of a wedding in Los Angeles