Yes, Courtly is legit. It performs legal online marriages under Utah’s remote-marriage law, holds a Trustpilot score of 4.8 across 923 reviews as of September 10, 2026, and answers every negative review on that profile. A Courtly marriage ends in a state-issued certificate that’s valid in all 50 states.
Now the disclosure: we run Vowed and Clear, a competing service. You should know that before you weigh anything below. We’re writing this page because “is courtly legit” is a question people genuinely search, and it deserves verified facts rather than a competitor’s smear or a fake review site’s affiliate link. Everything here comes from Courtly’s own pricing page and public Trustpilot profile, loaded on July 18, 2026 and again on September 10, 2026.
What Courtly charges, actually
Courtly’s page shows three tiers. In September the two upper tiers carry a promotion.
| Courtly (September 2026) | Vowed and Clear | |
|---|---|---|
| Base price | $199 Core, non-refundable / $299 Popular (list $399), refundable | $349, refundable before the ceremony |
| Government license fee | ”Estimated at $70,” charged separately | $71, shown before checkout |
| Video recording of your ceremony | Not included in Core; included from Popular up | Included |
| Witnesses | Bring your own 2 free, or +$50 for theirs | Bring your own 2 free, or $25 each for ours |
| Rush (married within 24 hrs) | +$150, or bundled in the $499 Fast-Track (list $599) | +$100, same day |
| Apostille | +$50 plus shipping | ask us |
| Live translation | +$40 | +$50 interpreter, 16 languages |
| Name-change kit | +$35 | guide included |
Two of those rows are the reason this page exists. First, the video: Core’s own exclusion list says the recording isn’t included, so the moment most couples actually want to keep costs extra. Second, the promotion: the tier that was $399 in July is $299 in September with a promo label, and nothing on the page says when that ends.
A note in Courtly’s favor. In July their pricing page listed rush at $150 in one section and 275 in another. When we re-checked in September, that contradiction was gone and $150 is the only number shown. That was our main complaint about their page, and they fixed it.
The honest math, both directions
If you want the cheapest possible legal online marriage and you’re certain about your date: Courtly Core at $199 plus the roughly $70 fee is about $269 with your own witnesses. That beats our $420. You give up refundability and the recording to get there, and “certain about the date” is doing real work, because in this business plans move constantly.
Compared refundable-to-refundable during the September promotion, Courtly also wins on the sticker: $299 plus about $70 comes to roughly $369 against our $420. We’re not going to pretend otherwise. What you get for the difference with us is a personalized fifteen-minute ceremony rather than a standard slot, the HD recording, and a price that doesn’t have a promo tag on it, so it’ll be the same number next month.
For same-day, the math flips back. Our $100 rush is the lowest published rush fee in the category. Theirs is $150 on its own or bundled into the $499 Fast-Track tier.
Where Courtly is genuinely strong
Fair is fair. Courtly has the largest brand in the category, a big review base, multilingual support including a Chinese-language site, and an embassy-authentication service (275 dollars on average, per their page) that we don’t offer. If you need that paperwork path, they’re the right call. Both services end at the same place legally: a Utah marriage certificate, the document we cover in Is Virtual Marriage Legit?, valid everywhere in the country.
The bottom line
Courtly is legitimate and nobody should tell you otherwise. The differences worth deciding on: their cheapest tier is non-refundable and excludes the recording, their refundable tier is on promotion right now and may not stay there, and their rush is $150. Our price math is $349 plus $71 everywhere it appears, refundable, recording included, $100 same-day rush. For the whole field including Distant Weddings, VirtualMarriage, Virtual Same Day Marriage, and RemoteVows, the numbers sit side by side in our online marriage services comparison, and the quick feature rundown lives at Vowed and Clear vs Courtly.
