Orange County is getting ready to handle the wave of couples that will travel to the area to get a marriage license after Los Angeles County announced it will nearly double its pricing, officials said Friday.
The LA Board of Supervisors announced on Sept. 16 that the cost of obtaining a public marriage license will go up from $91 to $176, a 93% increase. Similarly, a confidential marriage license will climb from $85 to $220, a 259% increase.
That spike will lead many license seekers to take a trip down south to save money, Orange County Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen predicted.
“There (are) a lot of couples that are going to come down to Orange County,” said Nguyen. “Our staff is ready to go.”
The clerk-recorder’s office said Orange County will not be increasing license fees, meaning it will stay at $61, one of the lowest in the state.
LA couples looking to get a license will be impacted by the fee increases, but the wedding and licensing industries in LA may feel the burden, too.
Alan Katz, a licensed notary who owns The Cute Little Wedding Chapel in Long Beach, said the price change will be “catastrophic” for his business. Although Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan said the price change is meant to raise revenue, Katz said changing license costs won’t produce that result.
“It will drive couples out of Los Angeles County to neighboring counties like Orange, [which] means fewer ceremonies here, fewer couples able to afford to wed and ultimately the closure of many local wedding chapels,” Katz said.
In addition to threatening local businesses, the increase makes the gap between public and confidential licenses $44, an unhistorically large number. The difference could also make it more difficult for lower-income couples to obtain a license, according to Katz.
“There is no valid justification for such an extreme imbalance,” he said. “This decision unfairly burdens couples, especially those from lower-income backgrounds, for whom marriage should never be out of financial reach.”
To fight back against the county’s move, Katz and other chapel owners are coming together to form a coalition and will potentially pursue legal action to prevent the changes from taking effect.
“We will not stand by while our industry and the dreams of countless couples are destroyed,” Katz said.
If the price increase goes through, LA’s marriage licenses will not only cost more than its neighboring counties, but also other parts of the country.
In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, a marriage license fee is $110, and in Macomb County, Michigan, in-state residents can get one for as low as $20.
The last time LA County raised its marriage license fees was in 2009, when a confidential license rose from $70 to $85 and a public license increased from $70 to $90.
The license cost increases are set to take effect on Oct. 16.