Cape Cod & the Islands, Massachusetts

Officiant & Ceremony

In Cape Cod & the Islands: Licenses here are issued by city and town clerks, not by counties, and this region has 22 of them: fifteen towns on the Cape, six on Martha's Vineyard and one on Nantucket, each setting its own fee. There is no county marriage license in this state. Then the timing meets the boat. The license is not valid for 3 days after it is issued, and both of you must apply together and in person, so a couple flying into Nantucket on a Thursday for a Saturday wedding has already missed it, with no second chance, because the clerk is on the island and so are they. The rescue is the most useful sentence in this annex: the license is valid anywhere in Massachusetts. File weeks early at any city or town clerk on the mainland and carry it over, and the three days are long gone. It expires 60 days from the date the marriage intention is filed and signed, so file early but not months early. Both of you must be 18 or older. Boston's fee is $50, and that figure is Boston's alone.

0 listings · checked August 2026

Churches and congregations

These are places of worship rather than for-hire officiants. Many will marry members of their own congregation, or couples willing to join and complete a marriage preparation course, and some will not marry non-members at all. Several also price the building, the clergy and the musician separately. Ask early what they require of you — policy varies widely between denominations, and between individual congregations of the same denomination.

• Christ Chapel — Barnstable · christchapelcapecod.org · (508) 420-1200
• St. John's Episcopal Church — Sandwich · stjohnssandwich.org · (508) 888-2828
• St. Mary Our Lady of the Isle Catholic Church — Nantucket · stmarysnantucket.org · (508) 228-0100
• St. Marys Episcopal Church — Barnstable · stmarysbarnstable.org · (508) 362-3977
• St. Peter's Lutheran Cape Cod — Harwich · stpeterslutherancapecod.org · (508) 432-5172

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