Getting a Marriage License in Tampa Bay: Hillsborough and Pinellas County Process, Costs, and Timeline (2026)

Tampa Bay has a quirk most metros don’t: the region straddles two counties, and both clerks are fully in the marriage business. Hillsborough issues licenses in Tampa, Brandon, and Plant City; Pinellas does it in Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and at a north county service center. And because a Florida license from any county works anywhere in the state, a couple in St. Pete who works near downtown Tampa can apply on whichever side of the bay is convenient that day.[4]

Quick answer: A marriage license costs $86 in both Hillsborough and Pinellas County, or $61 if you complete a 4-hour premarital course first. Both of you apply in person: Tampa, Brandon, or Plant City for Hillsborough; Clearwater, St. Petersburg, or North County for Pinellas. Bring photo ID and your Social Security numbers. Florida residents wait 3 days unless the course waives it, the license lasts 60 days, and either clerk will marry you at the counter for $30.[1][4]

Full disclosure before we start: we run online weddings through Utah’s remote ceremony system, so we have a horse in this race. Most Tampa Bay couples should just get the county license, and this guide covers how. The online route earns its fee in a narrower set of situations, and we’ll be specific about which ones at the end.

Hillsborough County: Tampa, Brandon, and Plant City

The Hillsborough Clerk issues marriage licenses at three offices. Downtown, it’s the Pat Frank Courthouse at 419 Pierce St., Room 140, open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Plant City has the same hours at 301 N. Michigan Ave., Room 1071. The Brandon Regional Service Center at 311 Pauls Dr., Suite 110 closes an hour earlier, at 4 p.m.[2] Walk-ins are accepted at all three, though during busy stretches you may wait behind couples who scheduled ahead.

Hillsborough also does something few Florida clerks do: it issues marriage licenses over Zoom. You submit the application online, the clerk reviews it, and both of you join a video appointment where a deputy verifies your IDs, takes payment, and has you sign electronically.[3] Two caveats keep this from being a magic bullet. The appointments fill up weeks in advance (the clerk suggests applying 10 to 15 business days out, and if either of you joins five minutes late, you reschedule), and the Zoom call produces only the license. Florida still requires an in-person ceremony by an authorized officiant before you’re married, so the video option saves you one trip, not both.

Pinellas County: Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and North County

Across the bay, the Pinellas Clerk issues licenses and performs ceremonies at three locations, all open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They are Recording Services in Room 150 of the Clearwater Courthouse at 315 Court St., the St. Petersburg Branch at 545 First Ave. N., and the North County Customer Information & Service Center at 3165 McMullen Booth Rd. in Clearwater.[4]

Pinellas front-loads the paperwork with its online EMarriage application. You fill it out from home, it sits in the clerk’s queue for 30 days, and then both of you appear in person at any of the three offices to finish. It’s worth doing; couples who show up with the application already submitted spend their counter time on the oath and payment instead of typing.

What it costs in 2026

Both counties charge the same $86 for the license, and both drop it to $61 when you complete a premarital preparation course and hand the clerk your certificate.[1][4] The course has rules: at least 4 hours, completed within the past year, taught by a registered provider such as a licensed psychologist, therapist, counselor, or clergy member. Each clerk keeps a list of registered providers, and many offer the course online for less than the $25 you save. The bigger prize for Florida residents is that the same certificate erases the 3-day waiting period.

Both clerks take cash, card, or check in person, though card payments can carry a processing fee, so bring a backup or confirm with the clerk before you go. After your ceremony, the recorded license comes back to you as a certified copy (Pinellas includes the first one in the license price; additional copies are $3 each).[4]

What to bring, and the both-appear rule

Each of you needs a valid photo ID: driver’s license, state ID card, passport, or military ID. U.S. citizens must provide their Social Security numbers (you state the number; nobody asks for the card), and non-citizens can substitute an alien registration number, with a passport accepted as ID.[4] If either of you was married before, know the month and year the last marriage ended, because the application asks.

The rule that shapes everything else: both of you must appear together. Florida has no absent-applicant affidavit and no proxy option, so the standard process means two people at one counter during weekday business hours, then two people in front of an officiant.[5] While you’re there, you’ll both sign a statement confirming you’ve read Florida’s Family Law Handbook, a short rights-and-responsibilities primer the clerk hands you if you haven’t. There’s no blood test and no residency requirement; plenty of couples fly into Tampa just to marry.

The 3-day wait and the 60-day window

If at least one of you is a Florida resident, the license you buy today isn’t effective until three days from now.[5] The premarital course certificate waives the wait entirely, a county court judge can waive it for hardship, and couples who both live out of state skip it automatically. The counting rules and waiver mechanics have enough edge cases that we wrote them up separately in our Florida 3-day waiting period guide.

The other clock runs 60 days. Marry before the effective date or after the expiration date printed on the license and the marriage isn’t valid; let it expire and you’re buying a new license.[4] One logistical note for cross-bay couples: the license works for a ceremony anywhere in Florida, but it must be returned to the issuing county for recording. Buy in Pinellas, marry at a Hillsborough venue, mail the signed license back to Clearwater.

Getting married at the clerk’s counter

Both counties will finish the job on the spot. Deputy clerks perform marriage ceremonies during regular weekday hours for $30, and in Pinellas no appointment is necessary; the ceremony can happen the moment your license is effective, and the office will even take a wedding photo for $10 and print a keepsake certificate for $5.[4] Hillsborough charges the same $30 and has dedicated ceremony spaces at all three offices. The Brandon room holds about 6 guests and the downtown Tampa and Plant City rooms hold about 10, with appointments recommended and walk-ins welcome.[6] The Hillsborough Clerk even ran a free group wedding for 50 couples at Joe Chillura Courthouse Square last Valentine’s Day, waiving the ceremony fee.

If you’d rather marry outside a government building, Florida is generous about officiants: ordained clergy, judges, clerks, and, unusually, any Florida notary public can solemnize a marriage.[5] That notary rule is why beach weddings from Clearwater to Pass-a-Grille are so easy to book. Planning the same process from Central Florida instead? Our Orlando marriage license guide walks through Orange County’s version.

The realistic timeline

Count the appearances. Both of you, together, at a clerk’s office on a weekday. Then three days if you’re residents without a course certificate. Then both of you, together again, in front of an officiant within the 60-day window. The fastest clean version for a resident couple is the course online tonight, the license and a $30 counter ceremony tomorrow morning, married before lunch for $91. Without the course it’s license Monday, wedding Thursday.

That’s genuinely manageable for most couples. It stops being manageable when the two of you can’t produce matching windows: a MacDill deployment, hospital shift schedules, a partner working a contract out of state, or a couple mid-move between cities. Hillsborough’s Zoom license helps with trip one but not trip two, and Florida has no remote ceremony option at all.

When neither courthouse works

That coordination gap is exactly what Utah’s remote ceremony system exists to close. Both partners join a live video call from wherever they are, a licensed Utah officiant performs the ceremony with two witnesses on the call, and there’s no waiting period and no in-person appearance for anyone. Through Vowed and Clear the whole thing costs a flat $370, our $299 service plus Utah’s $71 license fee, with nothing billed after that. The result is a legal U.S. marriage with a state-issued certificate that Florida recognizes under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, the same way it recognizes a Georgia marriage. The full comparison lives on our Florida online marriage page.

One boundary we hold: if your marriage connects to a visa or immigration case, talk to an immigration attorney about which route fits your situation before booking anything, with us or anyone else.

So the decision is logistics. If two joint weekday trips inside 60 days are easy, spend the $86 (or $61 with the course) and let a deputy clerk in Clearwater or a ceremony room in Brandon make it official. If those two trips are the exact thing your life won’t allow right now, the online route was built for you.

Sources:

[1] Marriage License FAQ, Hillsborough County Clerk of Court & Comptroller

https://www.hillsclerk.com/additional-services/marriage-license/marriage-license-faq

[2] Service Options and Locations, Hillsborough County Clerk of Court & Comptroller

https://www.hillsclerk.com/About-Us/Service-Options-and-Locations

[3] Online Marriage License (Zoom Issuance), Hillsborough County Clerk of Court & Comptroller

https://www.hillsclerk.com/additional-services/marriage-license/online-marriage-license

[4] Marriage Licenses and Ceremonies, Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller

https://www.mypinellasclerk.gov/Home/Recording-Services/marriage-licenses

[5] Florida Statutes Chapter 741 (Secs. 741.01, 741.04, 741.041, 741.0305, 741.07), Florida Legislature

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0741/0741.html

[6] Marriage License and Ceremonies, Hillsborough County Clerk of Court & Comptroller

https://www.hillsclerk.com/marriage

[7] Apply for a Marriage License, Pinellas County Government

https://pinellas.gov/services/apply-for-a-marriage-license/