Ontario does not sell you a marriage license. Your city, town, or township does, at a price its own council sets. Marriage licence Ontario: Two couples marrying on the same Saturday can pay CA$40 apart for identical paperwork.
Short answer: a marriage license Ontario couples apply for comes from a municipal office, not from the province. It costs roughly CA$140 to CA$180 depending on the city and stays valid for three months. Both of you sign one application, each of you shows two pieces of original identification, and anyone married before has to prove the divorce.
Marriage License Ontario Fees: Five Municipalities Compared
These are the fees the municipalities themselves published as of August 2026. Nothing here is an estimate.
| Municipality | License fee | What its own page adds |
| Toronto | CA$180 | Book an in-person appointment to collect the license. |
| Greater Sudbury | CA$179 | Valid 90 days, and no refund once it expires |
| Mississauga | CA$165 | Good anywhere in Ontario for three months, with no waiting period |
| Guelph | CA$165 | Either applicant, or both, may attend the appointment. |
| London | CA$140 | HST does not apply to the fee |
That is a CA$40 spread, and Toronto charges about 29% more than London for the same document. Any page quoting you one Ontario price has copied one city’s number and called it a rule. Check the municipality where you plan to apply, because that is the only figure that will be charged to your card.
Key Takeaways
- Municipalities issue the license, so there is no single Ontario price.
- CA$75 of the fee is the provincial share. Your city adds its own administrative charge on top.
- Licenses expire. Count 90 days from the day it is handed to you, and you will never be caught short.
- Both applicants sign, but you do not have to both stand at the counter in every municipality.
- A divorce granted outside Canada needs authorization from the Registrar General first, and that step alone can take four weeks.
Why the Price Changed at the City Limit
The province’s own guidance on getting married in Ontario puts the provincial share of the fee at CA$75 and notes that municipal administrative fees may still apply on top. Ontario also warns that proof of a divorce granted outside Canada can take up to 4 weeks to validate. Ontario’s online application page is blunter still: the fee varies depending on the municipality.
So your bill is CA$75 of provincial fee, plus whatever your municipality charges to take the application and print the license. Councils set that second number, and they revisit it whenever they review user fees. It moves.
Marriage License Ontario: One waiver exists. It applies where both of you are registered or entitled to be registered under Canada’s Indian Act. Live on reserve or Crown land in Ontario as well, and the CA$75 provincial portion can be waived.
What You and Your Partner Need to Bring
Every municipality works from the same provincial requirements, so the shopping list barely changes between Windsor and Kingston.
- Two pieces of original government-issued identification each, one of them with a photo. Mississauga wants the photo piece to have been issued within the past 10 years, and Guelph wants the names on both pieces to match.
- No health cards, no SIN cards, no photocopies, and nothing expired. Scanned images are refused too.
- The Marriage Licence Application form, completed and signed in ink by both of you.
- Proof of divorce if either applicant has been married before, or a death certificate if a spouse died.
- A signed consent form where an applicant is 16 or 17.
- Payment in a method the office accepts. Guelph takes cash, debit, and credit.
Bring the original divorce paperwork rather than a copy from your lawyer’s file. A previous marriage often leaves money questions running alongside the wedding plans, and how child support is calculated in Canada is worth reading before you set a date.
How to Get the License, Step-By-Step
- Read your own municipality’s page first. The fee, the booking system, and the accepted payment methods are all local decisions.
- Download and complete the Marriage License Application. Ontario publishes one form and every municipal clerk uses it.
- Sign it, both of you, in ink. Original signatures are the point. A typed name or a scan will send you home.
- Assemble four pieces of identification between you, two each, and check that none of them expire before the appointment.
- Clear any divorce paperwork early. A foreign divorce needs provincial authorization before a clerk can issue anything.
- Book the appointment and pay the fee. Many municipalities now take the application online and hand over the printed license in person.
- Collect the license and start counting. Your deadline runs from the issue date, not from the day you applied.
Three Months or 90 Days? Read the Expiry Carefully
Ontario.ca and Mississauga both say a license is valid for three months from the date of issue. London and Greater Sudbury say 90 days. Those are not quite the same thing, and the gap can reach two days depending on the months involved.
Work on the shorter figure. Ninety days from the issue date is the safe deadline, and no municipality will argue with a couple who married early rather than late.
Greater Sudbury spells out the consequence that most pages leave unsaid. There is no refund on a license that expired before the ceremony, and a cancelled wedding means buying a fresh one at full price—couples who collect the license six months ahead of a long engagement pay for it twice.
If either of you was married before
A previous marriage is not an obstacle. It is a document. For a divorce granted in Canada, bring the original Certificate of Divorce or the final decree, or a copy certified by the court that issued it. London is explicit that a Decree Nisi, a divorce order, or a judgment will not do, and Mississauga refuses photocopies and lawyer-certified copies alike.
A divorce granted outside Canada is a different process, and it is the one that wrecks timelines. Before any municipality can issue your license, the Office of the Registrar General in Thunder Bay has to authorize the marriage. Four documents go to that office:
- the completed Marriage Licence Application
- a Statement of Sole Responsibility signed by both applicants
- a legal opinion letter from a lawyer licensed in Ontario
- the foreign divorce decree, with a certified translation where it is not in English or French
Validation takes up to four weeks. Start it the month you get engaged, not the month before the wedding.
Marrying at 16 or 17
Ontario’s minimum age is 18. A 16- or 17-year-old may still marry, with written consent from both parents or legal guardians, or with a court order where consent cannot be obtained. That consent form comes from the province; an applicant signs it in front of the clerk or a commissioner, and the municipality keeps it with the application. Below 16, there is no route at all, whatever the circumstances.
When Banns Replace the Licence
You do not always need to buy anything. Ontario still recognises the publication of banns, the old practice of announcing an intended marriage in a congregation before the ceremony.
Ontario describes banns as an alternative to a marriage license in limited and specific circumstances, and your officiant decides whether it applies. In practice, it works only for a religious ceremony, performed by an officiant registered in Ontario, in a faith community that publishes banns at all. Ask the officiant well before you assume the CA$165 stays in your pocket, because a refusal on the day leaves you with no legal ceremony.
After the Ceremony: Signing, Filing, and Registration
Your llicenceis not a souvenir. Immediately after the ceremony, the two of you, your two witnesses, and the officiant all sign it. The officiant then sends the signed licence to ServiceOntario, which registers the marriage. That filing is what makes the marriage a matter of public record, and until it happens, there is nothing for the province to certify. A marriage certificate is the separate document you order from ServiceOntario afterwards, once registration is complete.
Marriage changes more than a surname. Property, wills, and support obligations all shift on the day, and our Ontario family law guides cover what moves next.
Do Both of Us Have to Go to the Appointment?
Not everywhere. Guelph allows either applicant or both to attend, provided the form carries both original signatures and both sets of identification arrive with it. Mississauga expects both of you in person. This is the single rule that varies most between municipalities, so phone the office rather than assume.
Your Next Step
Marriage License Ontario:Open your municipality’s marriage page, note the fee and the appointment lead time, then work backwards from the wedding date. If a foreign divorce is in the picture, add a month before anything else. Questions about what the marriage does to your property or your support obligations belong with a lawyer. You can reach the Lawverra team through our contact page to get pointed in the right direction.
FAQ
Yes. Mississauga states it plainly: the licence is good anywhere in Ontario. Apply in Guelph on a Tuesday, marry in Kenora on the Saturday, and the paperwork holds.
Canadian usage keeps the noun as “license” and the verb as “license,” so Ontario.ca and every municipal page write “marriage licence.” Most people search with the American spelling. Both refer to the same document, and no clerk will blink at either.
In Ontario, there is no waiting period once the license has been issued, as Mississauga confirms. Booking an officiant, a venue, and two witnesses at that speed is the harder problem.
