Marriage license vs marriage certificate

A marriage license and a marriage certificate are two stages of the same file. The license is the permit to marry: the couple buys it before the wedding from the county clerk or other local office, it is valid for a limited time, and it has no use after the ceremony except to be completed. At the ceremony, the officiant, the couple and, where required, the witnesses sign it; the officiant then returns it to the issuing office within the deadline set by the state. Once that office records it, the marriage exists in the public record, and what the office issues from then on is the marriage certificate, a certified copy of the recorded marriage. Agencies ask for the certificate: Social Security, the passport office, motor vehicle offices, employers and insurers. In Texas, for example, the license costs $71 to $82 at the county clerk, while certified copies of the recorded marriage come from the same county clerk afterwards, because the state only issues verification letters. The two costs are separate, and so are the dates: the license expires after 90 days there, while a certificate never expires. Some keepsake certificates handed out at weddings are decorative; only the copy from the recording office is certified. A Texas birth certificate, often needed to apply, costs $22.