What Does a Beach Wedding Cost? Public Beach Permit Fees, Marriage Licence Fees and Destination Marriages in the United States from Official Fee Schedules, CDC/NCHS and Hawaii State Records, 1990–2026
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Popular accounts of destination and beach weddings rarely separate the public cost of marrying on a beach from the private wedding budget. We collect the published small-ceremony permit fees of 11 US public beach authorities and the standard marriage licence fees of 34 states, and set them against survey-reported wedding spending and official marriage statistics. The lowest published permit fee for a small ceremony ranged from USD 20 on Hawaii's state beaches to USD 300 for a Big Sur elopement, and several schedules rise with group size, equipment and residence, up to USD 1,000 for 76 or more people in Walton County, Florida. Licence fees ranged from USD 25 (Indiana) to USD 169 (King County, Washington), with a median of USD 60. Surveyed couples reported spending an average of USD 34,000 on a 2025 wedding, or USD 292 per guest, so the highest permit was 0.88% of that average. Permits cap ceremonies at 20–50 guests at the cheapest rates and at two to four hours, and two authorities prohibit receptions on the sand. Official records locate destination marriages: in 2023, 62.4% of Hawaii's 17,925 marriages joined two nonresidents, and Nevada's marriage rate of 24.6 per 1,000 was 4.03 times the US rate of 6.1. Both hubs have contracted: Hawaii recorded 37.9% fewer marriages than in 2004, air visitors travelling to Hawaii to marry fell 33.0% between 2019 and 2024, and Nevada's rate was about a third of its 2000 level. US marriages were 11.8% below their 2000 count in 2023.
Authors: Kurz, Anneliese, Whitcombe, Daniel R.
Language: English
Topic: Marriage and Family Dynamics
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7219769296
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