Step one
How to get ordained online
Getting ordained online means completing a short application with a ministry that ordains people over the internet, and receiving a written record of the ordination and its date. In the United States that is the route most first-time wedding officiants take. It is rarely the whole of it: 13 of the 51 US jurisdictions require an officiant to take a further step before the ceremony — a registration, a court appointment, or a special license — and that requirement belongs to the state and county where the wedding happens, not to where the officiant lives or where the ministry is. Virginia is the one to read even though it requires none of those: there, whether an online ordination is authorized at all is the circuit court’s to decide, county by county.
Somebody asked you to marry them, and the first thing they told you to do was get ordained. That part is genuinely small: a form, a name, an email address, done in an evening. Ordination is the half everybody knows about; the step some places attach to it is the half with a date on it, and it is why the order below starts somewhere other than the form.
This is step one of eight. Everything after it — the couple, the shape of the ceremony, the script, the rehearsal, the day, and the license afterwards — is on how to officiate a wedding.
Getting ordained, in the order that saves a phone call
- Step 1~20 min
Start with the state the wedding is in, not with the form
Authority to solemnize a marriage is set by the state where the ceremony happens, and in some places it is applied county by county. Where you live and where the ministry is does not decide it. Read that state’s page first — in a handful of places it changes which route is worth taking at all.
- Step 2~20 min
Choose an ordaining body and read what it actually claims
Ministries differ in what they ask for and what they hand back. Read the plain statement of what the ordination is: whether you are ordained as an individual, what the credential is called, whether a dated record comes with it, and what is charged for anything beyond it. Nobody can promise you a given office will accept a given ministry.
- Step 3~10 min
Apply in the name you are going to sign
Your full legal name, spelled the way it will be spelled on the marriage license and the way you will sign it. A middle initial on one and a middle name on the other is exactly the mismatch a clerk notices at the counter.
- Step 4~15 min
Get the ordination in writing, and check the date on it
Ask for whatever record the ministry issues — a certificate, a letter of good standing, a credential number, a date. Some offices ask to see it when the license is issued, and some registrations want a copy attached. Order anything physical early: printing and post are the part that does not compress.
- Step 5~60 min
Do the jurisdiction’s step, if it has one
This is the part with a deadline on it. Where a state or a city requires a registration, a court appointment, or a special license, it is written as something done before the ceremony. The section below names them, quotes what each one requires, and links to where that was read.
- Step 6~5 min
Keep the paperwork with the license
Put the ordination record wherever the marriage license is going rather than leaving it in an inbox. Most of the time nobody asks. When somebody does, it is at the venue, and "it is in my email somewhere" costs ten minutes nobody has.
The jurisdictions that want something before the day
Some apply to everybody. Others apply only if you are not ordained, only if you are traveling in from another state, or only inside one city. Each entry is the field as it was read from that state’s statute or vital-records page; the state page behind each name carries the link and the date of the check.
A state that is not on this list is a state where we found nothing, which is not the same as knowing there is nothing. Counties do ask to see proof of ordination when the license is issued, and that is local practice rather than statute. Ask the office that issues the license where the wedding is being held.
A friend or relative self-officiating needs a one-time marriage commissioner appointment from an Alaska court (AS 25.05.261(a)(2)). Ordained clergy do not register separately.
Officiants record their ordination credentials with an Arkansas county clerk's office before performing a marriage.
Ministers register through Delaware's online Clerk of the Peace registry and receive a registration number before solemnizing a marriage.
The District requires officiants to register with and be authorised by the DC Superior Court Marriage Bureau before performing a ceremony.
Every marriage performer must be licensed by the Hawaii Department of Health before performing a marriage. This is statewide, not county-level.
Maine-resident judges, Maine-Bar lawyers and ordained clergy need no registration. A friend who is not ordained must register as a marriage officiant with the Maine Secretary of State, and an officiant from out of state — ordained or not — needs a temporary registration certificate (19-A M.R.S. § 655). Both carry a fee and take time to process, so start well before the date.
Since 1 July 2025 every officiant, religious or secular, must be at least 21 and register personally as a civil marriage officiant with a Minnesota county registrar (Minn. Stat. § 517.04). The older route — filing ordination credentials with a county — was repealed.
Nevada requires a certificate of permission to perform marriages before you may solemnize one, obtained from the county clerk where you live (NRS §§ 122.062, 122.064). There is an application fee, and a clerk may set the certificate to expire.
New Hampshire is layered. An ordained minister qualifies without further paperwork only if they reside in the state (RSA 457:31). An out-of-state ordained officiant needs a $25 special license from the Secretary of State naming the couple (RSA 457:32), and someone who is not ordained at all needs an $85 Special Marriage Officiant License for that one wedding (RSA 457:32-b).
New York City requires officiants to register with the NYC Clerk's Office before performing a ceremony. Most other New York towns do not, though some ask to see proof of ordination.
A minister must produce ordination credentials to the Ohio Secretary of State and receive a licence to solemnize marriages before performing one (Ohio Rev. Code § 3101.10). Judges and mayors are authorized by office.
Out-of-state or one-time temporary officiants register with the Vermont Secretary of State and attach the resulting certificate of authority to the returned license.
There is no single statewide registration. Va. Code § 20-23 lets — but does not require — the clerk of a circuit court to issue an order authorizing a minister to celebrate marriages. Some circuit courts decline to authorize ministers ordained online without a congregation, resting on a 1974 Virginia Supreme Court decision, and practice genuinely differs from county to county. Confirm with the circuit court clerk for the county where the ceremony will happen, well before the day.
Religious representatives must register with the West Virginia Secretary of State before solemnizing a marriage, on proof of age, denominational authorization and regular communion with their church (W. Va. Code § 48-2-402). There is a registration fee of up to $25.
What this page cannot tell you
Said out loud, because these are the gaps a content farm fills with a guess.
- Whether a particular office will accept a particular ordination. That is the office’s call, and Virginia is the proof it can differ between two counties in one state.
- What the registrations cost, or how long they take. We hold the requirement, not a price list. The only two figures in our data are New Hampshire’s and West Virginia’s, quoted above because their own statutes state them.
- Whether a marriage stands. That is jurisdiction-specific in all 51, and it is not ours to answer.
This page is informational, not legal advice. Requirements change — Minnesota replaced its credential-filing route with personal registration in 2025, and Alabama abolished the officiant requirement in 2019. Confirm every detail with the office that issues the license where the wedding is being held. Statutes read .
Questions people ask before they apply
Can you get ordained online and perform a wedding legally?
That is decided by the state where the ceremony takes place, and in some places county by county, so nobody can answer it for the whole country at once. Most US states record no statewide registration for officiants; 13 of the 51 jurisdictions here attach a step before the ceremony. Virginia shows the answer differing inside one state — some circuit courts decline to authorize ministers ordained online without a congregation. The office that issues the marriage license is the one to ask, and it is worth asking before the date is booked.
How long does it take to get ordained online?
The application itself is short. What takes time is whatever the jurisdiction attaches to it: Maine’s registrations carry a fee and take time to process, the District of Columbia requires authorization from the Superior Court in advance, and Hawaii licenses officiants through the state Department of Health. Add postage if you order a physical certificate. Where a second step exists, weeks rather than days is the safe assumption.
Does an ordination from one state work in another?
The wedding’s state decides, not yours and not the ministry’s. Hawaii licenses officiants through its Department of Health and says being ordained elsewhere does not carry over automatically. New Hampshire requires an out-of-state ordained officiant to obtain a special license from the Secretary of State naming the couple. Vermont requires an out-of-state officiant to register and attach the certificate to the returned license. Where a state is not on the list above, ask the office that issues the license there.
Which online ministry should I use?
We do not recommend one. We do not ordain anyone and we do not verify that any person has legal authority to solemnize a marriage — our terms say so as plainly as we can. What matters more than the choice is that the ordination is dated before the ceremony, that it is in the name you will sign, and that you can produce a record of it if asked.
Do you have to be ordained to officiate a wedding at all?
Not in every case. Judges and some public officers are authorized by the office they hold, and several states run their own route for a one-time officiant — Alaska appoints a marriage commissioner through a court, Maine registers a marriage officiant through the Secretary of State, New Hampshire issues a license for one named wedding. Colorado allows couples to self-solemnize, and Alabama abolished the officiant requirement altogether in 2019.
Steps two through eight, done in an hour.
Answer questions about the wedding and the ceremony comes back complete — the full word-for-word script, a minute-by-minute run-sheet, cue cards for the front of the room, a rehearsal checklist, and the license duties for the state the wedding is in, on one printable page.