Florida Wedding Timing: the 3-Day Wait, the 60-Day License, and When the Prenup Must Be Signed
Quick Answer
How far ahead of a Florida wedding does everything have to happen? The marriage license costs $86.00, or $61.00 if both parties complete a state-approved premarital preparation course. For Florida residents there is a 3-day waiting period between issuance and the ceremony, and the license is valid for 60 days. The premarital agreement has no statutory waiting period at all — but it must be signed before the wedding, because Fla. Stat. § 61.079(5) makes it effective only on marriage.
The License Clock: 3 Days and 60 Days
Two periods govern the license itself, and they run in opposite directions.
The 3-day waiting period applies to Florida residents between the issuing of the license and the ceremony. It is the reason a license collected on a Thursday does not work for a Saturday wedding.
The 60-day validity period is the outer limit. A license issued and never used expires 60 days later, and the couple starts again. Collecting the license months in advance of a long engagement does not help.
The usable window, then, is the stretch between day three and day sixty.
The Fee: $86, or $61 After the Course
A Florida marriage license is $86.00. Where both parties complete a state-approved premarital preparation course, the fee is $61.00 — a reduction of $25. Both figures are the same at the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach clerks.
These are clerk fees. They are the only figures on this page that anyone pays to a government office in connection with getting married in Florida.
Where the Prenup Fits — and Why It Has No Deadline
This is where couples usually expect a rule and find none. § 61.079 imposes no minimum interval between signing a premarital agreement and the ceremony. There is no statutory waiting period, no notarization requirement and no witness requirement in the section itself.
What the statute does impose is a boundary rather than a countdown. § 61.079(2)(a) defines a premarital agreement as one “made in contemplation of marriage and to be effective upon marriage,” and § 61.079(5) provides that it “becomes effective upon marriage of the parties.” Signed before the wedding, it takes effect at the wedding. Signed after, it is not a premarital agreement at all — it is a postnuptial agreement, which sits outside § 61.079 entirely.
So the deadline is the ceremony, and nothing else.
If One of You Is Not a Florida Resident
The 3-day waiting period is tied to Florida residency. Where it does not apply, the 60-day validity period still does — the license expires 60 days after issuance regardless of who collected it, so a destination wedding planned around an early license run into the same outer limit.
The premarital agreement is unaffected by any of this. § 61.079 contains no residency condition, and it does not require the marriage to take place in Florida; it requires only that a marriage take place. An agreement signed in Miami before a ceremony held elsewhere still becomes effective on that marriage under § 61.079(5).
Why Timing Still Matters Without a Statutory Deadline
The absence of a waiting period is not an invitation to sign at the rehearsal dinner. § 61.079(7)(a) makes an agreement unenforceable where the party resisting it proves it was not executed voluntarily, and the circumstances of signing are part of that question. A document produced with the guests already arriving is a document whose voluntariness someone can later argue about.
Working backwards from the wedding date is the practical approach: the agreement negotiated and signed with room to spare, the license collected inside the 60-day window and at least three days before the ceremony.
Florida Sets No Deadline. California Voids a Prenup Signed Inside Seven Days.
Florida is not the norm here, and the contrast is the clearest way to see what § 61.079 does and does not require. California’s premarital statute treats the calendar itself as a condition of voluntariness: an agreement executed on or after 1 January 2020 is deemed involuntary unless “the party against whom enforcement is sought had not less than seven calendar days between the time that party was first presented with the final agreement and the time the agreement was signed, regardless of whether the party is represented by legal counsel” (Cal. Fam. Code § 1615(c)(2)). California also requires independent legal counsel at signing, or an express waiver of counsel in a separate writing (Cal. Fam. Code § 1615(c)(1)).
Florida’s statute contains neither rule. § 61.079(3) asks for a writing signed by both parties and nothing else; § 61.079(5) makes it effective on the marriage. The same agreement, presented and signed on the morning of the wedding without lawyers, satisfies Florida’s formalities and fails California’s.
Two things follow for a Florida couple. First, a short interval is attacked here through § 61.079(7)(a) voluntariness, as evidence, rather than as an automatic disqualifier — which is a weaker protection for the party being asked to sign and a wider opening for the party challenging it later. Second, if you are marrying in Florida but either of you may end up litigating in a seven-day state, the California clock is worth honouring anyway; nothing in Florida law prevents you from building in the interval, and doing so removes the argument in both jurisdictions.
This describes another state’s requirement and links its governing text. Pazos Law Group is admitted in Florida and does not advise on California law.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is a Florida marriage license?
$86.00, or $61.00 where both parties complete a state-approved premarital preparation course. The reduced fee is the same at the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach clerks, because the figure is set by state statute rather than by the county. Completing the course also removes the three-day waiting period that otherwise applies to Florida residents, so it shortens the timeline as well as the bill.
Is there a waiting period for a Florida marriage license?
Yes, three days for Florida residents between the day the licence is issued and the ceremony. Non-residents are not subject to it. Completing a state-approved premarital preparation course removes the wait for residents and reduces the fee from $86.00 to $61.00. Note that this waiting period belongs to the licence: § 61.079 imposes no waiting period at all on the prenuptial agreement itself.
How long is a Florida marriage license valid?
Sixty days from the date of issuance. If the ceremony does not take place inside that window the licence lapses and a new one must be obtained, with the fee paid again. Working backwards from the wedding date is the practical approach: collect the licence inside the sixty-day window and at least three days before the ceremony if either of you is a Florida resident.
How long before the wedding must a prenup be signed?
§ 61.079 sets no minimum interval. It must be signed before the marriage, because § 61.079(5) makes it effective on marriage. Signing well ahead of the ceremony is a practical point about voluntariness under § 61.079(7)(a), not a statutory one.
What if we sign after the wedding?
Then it is not a prenuptial agreement at all. § 61.079(5) makes a premarital agreement effective “upon marriage of the parties”, so a document signed after the ceremony falls outside the section entirely. It becomes a postnuptial agreement, governed by ordinary contract principles and by Casto v. Casto, 508 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 1987), which applies a different and generally stricter standard of review.