California courthouse weddings surge as Gen Z drives civil ceremony boom

A number of West Coast couples are reportedly foregoing costly, extravagant weddings these days. Instead, they’re favoring simple courthouse ceremonies.

The demand for straightforward civil ceremonies is causing a rush for marriage appointments at municipal buildings in California, the Los Angeles Times recently reported.

“They pretty much get picked up as soon as we release them,” Santa Barbara County Clerk Melinda Greene told the publication. “We have people from all over the world.”

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Slots to get married at California courthouses have been filling up months in advance, while some couples snap up last-minute bookings.

Elopement has turned from “a breezy wedding alternative into a formal contact sport,” the same publication reported.

“It books up so fast, you have to be online at the exact time [of day] you plan on having your appointment,” Asha Marshall of So Fetch Photography told the Times. “A lot of my brides get stressed out.”

Micro-weddings are reportedly on the rise due in part to social media posts inspiring couples to get married at the same venues where celebrities have tied the knot.

Santa Barbara’s Spanish Moorish revival courthouse, for instance, is a sought-after spot where Kamala Harris married Doug Emhoff and where Kourtney Kardashian got hitched to Travis Barker.

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“We see dozens a day, starting at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Roy Lee, Santa Barbara County supervisor, told the Times.

San Francisco City Hall, where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married with great fanfare in 1954, is a top spot for a courthouse wedding, according to the Times. The venue hosts some 7,000 weddings a year.

The trend also coincides with Gen Z — those commonly cited as having been born between 1997 and 2012 — now entering its peak marrying years.

The oldest members of Gen Z are hitting the average marrying age of 28, online wedding-planning and registry company Zola reported, and this generation has become a primary driver of the wedding industry.

Micro-weddings are reportedly on the rise, due in part to social media. 

“The 2026 wedding season reflects the broader cultural shifts of this generation,” Zola reported in its “2026 Wedding Trends: First Look” report, a survey of more than 11,500 couples getting married in 2026.

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“Our couples are using TikTok and AI in their everyday lives, embracing both cocktails and mocktails and prioritizing their mental wellness,” the report said.

Though cost-friendly and streamlined civil marriage ceremonies are popular in some places, the average cost of a wedding is $36,000, according to Zola — while the average guest count has remained steady at around 145 people, similar to last year.

“Even with economic jitters, we’re seeing couples prioritize the celebration they want over other financial goals,” the company reported. “The sentiment is clear: 85% of couples say their wedding will be worth every penny.”

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Bank of America said in June 2026 that “wedding-related spending grew 8.5% year-over-year so far in 2026 … suggesting that higher prices haven’t completely curbed spending on that special day.”

The report also found consumers are spending less on one-time formal wear purchases, while more economical, lab-grown diamonds continue to gain traction.