Carnival Marriage License fee vs State Fee

[dbrown13]

We are planning a wedding out of Galveston, Texas for the Spring of 2016. We live in Texas and our county fee states it will be $82, however the Carnival flyer says the license fee is only $36. Does anyone know how this works? Why would it be cheaper for me to get my license through Carnival?

 

Is it easy to get your license through Carnival or would it be worth the extra $50 to just get it locally myself?

[mrstriceasnice]

Each state is different. I know with Florida the fee is $92.50 for non residents and then TWE charges another $125 to get it for you. We did it by mail and saved the extra fee.

[Anthony63]

I have read more about marriage requirements then I ever wanted. That being said Texas has as many marriage license fees as they have counties. Each county has its own fee. And once you get a license you can marry in any other county. The state also imposes a 60.00 fee unless you have had marriage counseling.

 

So I would assume that you are getting a license from a county that is charging less that you are seeing. They may be filing it so that the 3 day requirement is waived as well. As I have seen that Texas does require a 3 day waiting period. That might be what the additional 150 fee is for.

 

But then again they may just be quoting the lowest fee in Texas. Seeing as you are going to be married on the dock and not the boat and it is going to cost you 1500.00 and up if the 50.00 difference is an issue just get married the day before you leave in your home state by a justice of the peace.

 

If money isn't really the issue and you are looking for the experiance consider getting married at your own state by a judge or something so you would already be LEGALLY married then do a renewal of your vows onboard. Then you can do it AT SEA with the Captain.

 

Lots of options to consider.

Oh Congratulations.

[dbrown13]

Each state is different. I know with Florida the fee is $92.50 for non residents and then TWE charges another $125 to get it for you. We did it by mail and saved the extra fee.

 

Got it! I think what I didn't understand was that their listed fee doesn't incude the license fee. Thanks :)

[dbrown13]

I have read more about marriage requirements then I ever wanted. That being said Texas has as many marriage license fees as they have counties. Each county has its own fee. And once you get a license you can marry in any other county. The state also imposes a 60.00 fee unless you have had marriage counseling.

 

So I would assume that you are getting a license from a county that is charging less that you are seeing. They may be filing it so that the 3 day requirement is waived as well. As I have seen that Texas does require a 3 day waiting period. That might be what the additional 150 fee is for.

 

But then again they may just be quoting the lowest fee in Texas. Seeing as you are going to be married on the dock and not the boat and it is going to cost you 1500.00 and up if the 50.00 difference is an issue just get married the day before you leave in your home state by a justice of the peace.

 

If money isn't really the issue and you are looking for the experiance consider getting married at your own state by a judge or something so you would already be LEGALLY married then do a renewal of your vows onboard. Then you can do it AT SEA with the Captain.

 

Lots of options to consider.

Oh Congratulations.

 

Thanks! Since Texas is our home state and we would be doing the embarkation wedding it will all be in Texas. The $50 wasn't really an issue I was just curious why the difference really.

 

I think we may be going down to the port two days in advance and the licenses are good for 90 days so it won't be an issue to swing by the court house and apply for the license beforehand.

 

I think after reading more it's just a convenience thing to use Carnival for the license. Mostly for out of state visitors I would think...

[Anthony63]

That sound about right. Personally I think the vows renewal sounds nice you can have a quite real wedding that day or before then do a vow renewal onboard by the captain at sea. And more or less have that ceremony as your wedding. Or look into it more I read some boats based out of the Bahamas will allow weddings at sea.

[mrstriceasnice]

The vow renewals are sometimes hard to schedule as far as getting a particular day or location because of needing the availability of the space and the officer. Also it means only sailing guests can attend.

[dbrown13]

Thanks for the additional info! We definitely want non-sailing guests to attend and even though we have both been married previously we didn't want to go to the JP. Also keeping the total price low is important so I think we want to do it all in one take 😊