What the law actually requires to get married in Florida — and how to build a prenuptial agreement that holds up if it is ever tested.
Marriage in Florida is governed by a clear set of statutes. Meet them and your marriage is valid; a few of the rules also carry real cost and timing consequences worth knowing before you apply. This guide walks through the marriage-license requirements, then turns to prenuptial agreements — what Florida law lets you decide in advance, and the specific things that make an agreement enforceable instead of paper a judge sets aside.
Florida's marriage rules live in Chapter 741 of the Florida Statutes. There are five things every couple needs to clear.
Both parties must be 18 or older. A 17-year-old may marry only with notarized parental or guardian consent, and only if the older partner is no more than two years older. No license is issued to anyone under 17.
You must obtain a license from any Florida county Clerk of Court before the ceremony. Both partners appear in person with valid photo ID and provide a Social Security number if they have one.
Both parties sign an affidavit confirming eligibility and stating they have read the state handbook on the rights and responsibilities of marriage.
Florida residents face a three-day waiting period before the license takes effect — waivable (see below). The license itself is valid for 60 days.
An authorized officiant performs the ceremony, then certifies and returns the signed license to the Clerk within 10 days so the marriage is officially recorded.
For Florida residents, a marriage license does not become effective until three days after it is issued. You can waive the waiting period entirely by completing a registered four-hour premarital preparation course and presenting the certificate when you apply. That course does double duty: it also earns a discount on the license fee. A Florida marriage license costs roughly $86 in most counties, reduced by about $25 when you complete the course (fees vary slightly by county).
The three-day wait does not apply to non-Florida residents at all, and clerks may grant a hardship exception to Florida couples. Out-of-state couples planning a Florida wedding can usually marry the same day the license is issued.
Florida recognizes a broad set of officiants: ordained clergy and ministers, judicial officers (including judges and clerks of court), and notaries public. Whoever solemnizes the marriage must hold the valid license before the ceremony and is responsible for returning the completed license to the Clerk within 10 days. Until that happens, the marriage is not yet recorded.
A prenuptial agreement — Florida law calls it a premarital agreement — is a contract between two people who intend to marry, made in contemplation of marriage and taking effect the moment they wed. Florida has adopted the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act (Florida Statute § 61.079), which sets out both what a couple may decide in advance and what it takes for those decisions to stick.
One feature worth highlighting: a premarital agreement in Florida is enforceable without any consideration other than the marriage itself. The promise to marry is the consideration. You do not need to exchange money or property to make the contract binding.
A premarital agreement cannot adversely affect a child's right to support. Parents cannot bargain away what a child is owed. And if a support waiver would leave one spouse eligible for public assistance at the time of separation, a court can order support anyway, to the extent needed to avoid that result.
A prenup is only as good as its ability to survive a challenge years later. Under § 61.079, the formalities are simple — but the grounds a spouse can use to attack the agreement are where most prenups succeed or fail.
The statute asks for very little on paper: the agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties. Florida does not legally require notarization or witnesses for a premarital agreement to be valid — though signing before a notary is sensible practice and helps prove the signatures later.
An agreement is not enforceable if the spouse trying to escape it proves any one of the following:
If a party was pressured into signing — the classic example being a document presented the night before the wedding — a court can refuse to enforce it. Voluntariness is judged at the moment of signing.
Hidden assets, threats, or taking unfair advantage of the other party all fall here. An agreement built on misrepresentation does not bind anyone.
This one has parts. The agreement must have been grossly unfair when signed and the challenging spouse must show they were not given a fair, reasonable disclosure of the other's finances, did not expressly waive that disclosure in writing, and could not reasonably have known the other party's financial picture on their own.
Florida does not require full financial disclosure for a prenup to be valid. A disclosure failure only matters if the agreement was also unconscionable. But disclosure remains your single best protection — attaching honest financial schedules removes the most common avenue of attack before it can ever be raised.
After the wedding, the agreement can still be amended, revoked, or abandoned, but only by a later written agreement signed by both spouses.
You decide the terms; our system assembles the document. Answer a guided set of plain-language questions about the choices you and your partner have made, and the template builds a complete Florida premarital agreement from your answers — ready for you to review, finalize, and sign.