The Guide

Self-solemnization (marrying without an officiant) is only legal in a handful of US states: Colorado, California, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, Wisconsin, Washington DC, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. Colorado's version is generally considered the most straightforward of the group, with no residency requirement and no waiting period.

It suits couples who are comfortable handling their own paperwork and don't need a religious or culturally-officiated ceremony. It's worth reconsidering if your home country may not straightforwardly recognize a marriage solemnized without an officiant or witnesses; check the country-specific notes before you commit.

If you're a same-sex couple, this is also the point to check that piece specifically: Colorado's self-solemnization law itself doesn't distinguish by sex, but your home country's recognition of a same-sex marriage can differ from how it treats an opposite-sex one, even in countries that generally recognize foreign marriages.

Denver has the cheapest and most plentiful flight options into Colorado. A rental car isn't optional: the county clerk's office, the apostille office in Denver, and any wilderness ceremony site can all be far apart, and each county runs its own separate process. Where you base yourselves depends on what you're prioritizing: stay central in Denver for the license-and-apostille errands, or base near the mountains for the ceremony location itself.

Get a travel eSIM before you land for data and maps. Note that most travel eSIMs won't give you a dialable US phone number, which matters for at least one Colorado form later in the process.

Colorado marriage licenses cost $30, have no waiting period, no residency requirement, and no blood test. Apply in person at any county clerk's office. The license is valid for 35 days from the date it's issued, so time your application to line up with your ceremony date, not months in advance.

Every county clerk's office runs its own process, so which county you go to matters. We've already built an interactive map of all 64 counties: click through what we've confirmed so far.

"Self-solemnizing" means you and your partner marry each other directly: there's no officiant pronouncing you married, because Colorado lets your own signatures on the license do that job instead. Colorado is one of the few states that allows this, with no witnesses required either. Whatever ceremony you hold around that signing moment is entirely up to you; the state doesn't require one at all beyond the signatures.

Once the signed license is returned to the county clerk (within 63 days of the ceremony) and recorded, you'll need two separate steps: a certified copy of the marriage certificate from the county, then an apostille on that certified copy from the Colorado Secretary of State's Authentications office in Denver. These are easy to conflate and the order matters.

With an apostilled certificate in hand, what happens next depends entirely on your home country's requirements for recognizing a foreign marriage: translation, registration, or additional legalization steps may apply.