Courthouse Weddings Have Never Been More Chic

New York Times

06-02-2025

In October 2024, Lady Gaga shared on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' that she and her fiancé, Michael Polansky, had discussed the possibility of marrying at a courthouse and ordering Chinese food to celebrate.
She's not the only one to be drawn to low-key wedding celebrations. As several courthouse wedding photo shoots have spread on social media, they have inspired an aesthetic for which mood boards now abound: a gritty yet charming setting, creative fashion choices and candid photos with a romantic appeal.
According to data provided by Pinterest from their forthcoming annual wedding trend report, searches for 'civil ceremony photography' increased by 637 percent from 2023 to 2024. Data from Google Trends shows that searches for 'courthouse wedding' soared in January 2025.
At the Manhattan Marriage Bureau, the number of marriages held annually increased by 22 percent from 2022 to 2024.
Faith Hunter, 33, and Charles Hunter, 39, were drawn to a courthouse wedding because they found its pragmatic nature to be romantic.
When they were engaged in May 2023, they began wedding planning with the intention of hosting a big Nigerian bash. Ms. Hunter, a talent acquisition partner, already had a dream venue in mind.
She and Mr. Hunter, a marketing director, toured the space and loved it. But when it was time to talk numbers, she 'had a mini panic attack,' she said.
'The venue alone was, like, 20K for the bare minimum,' she said — that is, for the space alone, without food, drinks or other add-ons. 'I could do so much more with 20K.' They halted the planning process, and Ms. Hunter started questioning her idealized wedding fantasies.
They decided to marry at their local Atlanta courthouse on their second anniversary in November 2023, paying about $200 for a 10-minute, no-frills ceremony. Ms. Hunter's sister and her best friend served as their two witnesses.
'There is a level of intimacy that a courthouse wedding affords you where you are able to focus on the connection you have to your partner, without all of the glamorization of a typical wedding,' said Kaitlyn Barclay, who married Ingrid Parl at Brooklyn Borough Hall in November 2024. Ms. Barclay, a 35-year-old business executive, and Ms. Parl, a 37-year-old investment director, stayed at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge the night before the wedding. When they woke up, they ordered room service and read their vows over coffee with a sweeping view of the Brooklyn Bridge.
'We didn't need a million flowers and doves in the air and a hundred people around us to celebrate our love, though that's beautiful,' Ms. Barclay said. 'I think we wanted to almost decouple getting married and that lifelong commitment to each other from large-scale event planning.'
Ms. Parl and Ms. Barclay also didn't want to wait the year it would take to plan their wedding. 'We were madly in love, and we just wanted to be married,' Ms. Parl said.
They created a Pinterest board that showcased the aesthetic they wanted for their photos on the big day. 'It was very raw and authentic, with heavy movement,' Ms. Barclay said. 'We didn't want anything that felt posed, static or obvious.' After the ceremony, their photographer captured them walking through the streets of Brooklyn, where they had met a year earlier, holding hands, as drivers, store owners and pedestrians cheered them on.
Since courthouse ceremonies are also more budget-friendly and spontaneous, many couples who choose them feel less pressure on their wedding days. After Shylah May, 29 and Trevor Farrow, 31, were wed in April 2024 at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau, it started raining and their hair and outfits got soaked. But that didn't upset them. 'It actually added such a cool vibe to the day and the photos,' Ms. May said.
'We were dancing, twirling,' Ms. May, an influencer, said. 'That's how carefree it was. This was just for fun.'
'I feel like photographers and people getting married are catching on,' Mr. Farrow, a photographer, added. 'This is a big moment — let's try to make it cool.'
Lauren Sparger, a wedding photographer from Austin, Texas, said she had been shooting more courthouse weddings over the past five years.
She said she captured moments around the courthouse and in vintage cars, hotel rooms and candlelit restaurants before and after the ceremony. 'Adding creative touches, like bringing a small vintage cake to cut, can be the cherry on top of the whole experience,' Ms. Sparger said.
In August 2024, Sheridan Lamb, 27, and Ryan Lamb, 29, were married in a courthouse in Houston, where they are both from. They stayed at a nearby hotel, along with a dozen friends and family members. A party bus transported everyone to the courthouse and then to a restaurant afterward for a 25-person dinner. It was consistent with Ms. Lamb's philosophy of 'romanticizing your life,' she said.
The couple, who met as students at Texas Christian University, drew inspiration from Elvis and Priscilla Presley's courthouse wedding and Carrie Bradshaw's courthouse wedding in 'Sex and the City.' Ms. Lamb, who works in fine jewelry, wore a blazer dress with Manolo Blahnik shoes, and Mr. Lamb, who works in private aviation, wore a charcoal suit and a vintage Hermès black tie.
Ms. Barclay and Ms. Parl also brought their own flair to their outfits. They tried on different options together, and the shoes and blue, bell-sleeved dress Ms. Barclay wore arrived in the mail the day before the wedding. 'The expectation of perfection didn't have that grip on our elopement because it was just a little bit more pragmatic in approach,' Ms. Barclay said.
Some couples have larger wedding celebrations to accompany the civil ceremony, including destination weddings.
After their courthouse wedding, Ms. May and Mr. Farrow held a celebration in the Tuscany region of Italy in September. They were able to compare the two experiences.
'All the lovely things that we had at our Italy wedding, like performers and music and 70 people — it's amazing,' Mr. Farrow said. 'But it almost distracts from what's actually happening.'
But if they hadn't also had the larger celebration in Tuscany, where they celebrated with all their loved ones, Ms. May said, she might have felt a bit underwhelmed by the civil ceremony in New York. 'I remember being done and being like, I would be sad if that was the only thing,' she said.
Ms. Parl and Ms. Barclay said they had faced similar trade-offs but had no regrets about their decision to stick with a courthouse wedding.
Ms. Hunter said she was even encouraging her friends to marry at a courthouse and to 'save that money.'
'Go on a trip,' she said. 'Buy a house.'