Are you planning to get married at the Santa Barbara Courthouse? If so, it is such a wonderful way to tie the knot! Our studio captures a ton of weddings at the Santa Barbara Courthouse and many other courthouse weddings throughout Southern CA, check out another beautiful wedding here at the Laguna Hills Civic Center in Orange County. Wondering how long does a courthouse ceremony take at the Santa Barbara Courthouse? From our numerous weddings we have shot at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, the ceremony usually takes about 5-10 minutes max- it is very short and sweet but so special.

Read below for more details on the ceremony and how a day at the Santa Barbara Courthouse will go!

You are able to do a ring exchange and often if you ask, they will let you read your own vows to each other, they are all super friendly at the Santa Barbara Courthouse and it is such a wonderful experience.

For a more detailed breakdown, below is how we generally schedule the day for our couples and what seems to work best for photography and the ceremony at the Santa Barbara Courthouse. The great thing is since it is a smaller more intimate day, we can move couples shots either at the beginning before the ceremony, in the middle or at the end but this is the most common schedule below:

PRE-CEREMONY PAPERWORK:
Always make sure to arrive early as it will help with making everything stay on schedule. I usually recommend about 10 minutes prior. You will check-in inside the Hall of Records at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, pay any fees that are due, handle paperwork (possible marriage license details) etc. Also very important to make sure that both of you have a valid ID with you at check-in.

CEREMONY:
Your officiant will be a deputy commissioner at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, they make it special and short/sweet. You will exchange vows, exchange rings (if you would like), declaration of marriage legally and end with the signing of your marriage certificate.

PAPERWORK POST-CEREMONY
Once the marriage license has been filed and everything is complete, you can request copies etc. but everything goes extremely efficient at this point

PHOTO DETAILS:
As far as photo related specifics, we generally begin coverage at the start of the appointment time, capture candids of you two filling out paperwork and ceremony. We will usually capture any family/friends photos (if attending) post ceremony and then end photo coverage with couples shots throughout the courthouse- here is another beautiful wedding shot at the Santa Barbara Courthouse.

If you are interested in getting married at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, it is a beautiful and awesome choice! If you were wondering how long does a courthouse ceremony take at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, I hope this blog helped to give you an idea of how the flow of the day goes and the details around what the ceremony will be like. If you are interested in booking photography for your special day, let’s connect below!