Getting Legally Married in Fredericton: Licences, Officiants and Eloping

Start with the marriage licence

Before anyone can marry you, you need a marriage licence, and in New Brunswick that comes from Service New Brunswick, not the city and not a church. The licence is the piece of paper that makes the whole thing legal. It costs $115, and the good news for the impatient is that there is no waiting period: you walk in, apply, and the licence is issued to you the same day. That is a nice change from some places where you have to cool your heels for a few days first.

Both of you apply together to a Marriage Licence Issuer. You each fill out an application and sign an affidavit swearing the information is accurate, so you are both attesting to the details under oath. If one partner genuinely cannot attend (deployed, out of the country, that sort of thing), one of you can sometimes be excused with the right supporting documentation, but the default expectation is that both people show up. Call ahead to confirm what your situation needs.

In Fredericton, the Service New Brunswick centre is now at Brookside Mall, 435 Brookside Drive, on the north side of the river. The old downtown Queen Street office closed in 2024 when services moved across the river, so if you have an out-of-date address in your head, update it. You can also check other issuers and locations at snb.ca/locations or by calling 1-888-762-8600.

ID and documents you have to bring

The core requirement is proving who you are and how old you are. Acceptable documents include a birth certificate, a passport, a Canadian citizenship card, or a permanent resident card. Bring government-issued photo ID as well. If your legal name has ever changed, bring the paperwork that connects the dots so the names line up cleanly on your licence and later on your marriage registration.

If you have been married before, you need to prove that marriage has ended. Divorced applicants must bring a certified copy of the divorce decree, judgment, or certificate. Widowed applicants must bring the death certificate of their late spouse. Do not assume they will take your word for it: no proof, no licence, and you do not want to discover that on a Friday afternoon with a Saturday wedding booked.

On age: you must be 18 to marry without consent. Applicants who are 16 or 17 need a signed affidavit of consent from a parent or guardian, and no one under 16 can marry in New Brunswick, full stop. You will also want to line up your two witnesses ahead of time, because they need to be present at the ceremony and must be at least 19 to sign the Registration of Marriage form.

Cost, timing and how long the licence lasts

The licence is $115, and it is valid for three months from the date it is issued. That three-month window is the practical bit most couples care about. Get it too early and it can expire before the wedding; get it the same week and you are fine. A sensible sweet spot is a few weeks out: close enough that you are not racing the clock, far enough that a licensing hiccup will not blow up your timeline.

There is genuinely no waiting period, which makes New Brunswick friendly to short-notice weddings and elopements. In theory you could get the licence in the morning and marry in the afternoon, provided you already have an officiant, your witnesses, and everyone’s documents in order. The bureaucracy is not the bottleneck here; lining up a person authorized to actually perform the ceremony usually is.

One more thing worth internalizing: the licence is your permission to marry, not proof that you did. It is separate from the marriage certificate, which is a different document you order later once the marriage has been registered. We get into that at the end, because it is the piece you will actually need for changing your name or updating records.

Who is allowed to marry you

A valid New Brunswick marriage has to be solemnized by someone the province has authorized, and there are two categories. The first is registered religious officiants: clergy and faith leaders who are registered under the provincial Marriage Act. If you are marrying in a church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or with a particular faith community, your officiant almost certainly already holds this registration, but it is fair to confirm it early rather than assume.

The second category is civil officiants, who in New Brunswick are practising lawyers (members in good standing of the Law Society of New Brunswick) approved by the Registrar General to solemnize marriages. This is the route for a non-religious ceremony. Whichever you choose, that person is responsible for completing and returning the paperwork that turns your ceremony into a registered marriage, so it is worth confirming they are properly registered before you book.

A note that trips people up: the $100 fee you may see mentioned for a one-year civil officiant appointment is the cost the lawyer pays the province to be authorized, not what you pay to get married. What a couple pays is the officiant’s own fee for showing up and performing the ceremony, which varies by person. Ask for that number up front along with what is included (travel, a rehearsal, a personalized script, the paperwork).

Civil ceremonies and finding an officiant

If a religious ceremony is not for you, a civil officiant performs the legal, non-religious version. New Brunswick maintains an official list of civil officiants who have opted in to be publicly listed, and that list is the authoritative place to start rather than a random web search. You can find it through the Vital Statistics section of gnb.ca, and you can reach the Vital Statistics Unit at 506-453-2385 (option 4) with questions about officiants and registration.

Because civil officiants here are lawyers, a number of them offer wedding services alongside their regular practice, and some run tidy little wedding packages. Fredericton also has individual officiants who advertise locally; search the provincial list for names in the Fredericton area and then check whether their style, availability, and price fit what you want. A short phone call tells you a lot: how they run a ceremony, whether they will personalize it, and how far in advance they book.

Whoever you hire, the mechanics are the same on the day. You and your partner sign the Registration of Marriage using the names on your licence, your two witnesses sign, and the officiant is responsible for completing that form and returning it to Vital Statistics promptly (within days, in the postage-paid envelope they are given). That returned form is what actually registers your marriage in the provincial records.

Eloping and small-wedding logistics

Fredericton is a genuinely easy place to elope, because the legal barriers are low. No waiting period, a same-day licence, and only two witnesses required means a bare-bones legal wedding needs remarkably little: the two of you, an authorized officiant, two people over 19 to witness, your documents, and a spot. The witnesses do not have to be family; a couple of friends, or in a pinch two willing bystanders of the right age, can sign.

For the setting, the city gives you plenty of low-key backdrops: the walking trails and the riverfront along the Saint John River, the Green, and the leafy older neighbourhoods all photograph beautifully without a permit for a small, quiet gathering. If your little ceremony spills into a formal event in a public park or a facility with tables, chairs, and a crowd, that is when you should check with the City about facility bookings or permits. For the full planning picture (venues, caterers, and the bigger celebration), see our wider Fredericton guides.

The certificate and changing your name after

After the wedding, the document you will actually reach for is the marriage certificate, and it is not the licence. Once your officiant returns the Registration of Marriage and the province processes it, you can order an official marriage certificate from Vital Statistics. It costs $40 online or $45 in person or by mail. This is the proof of marriage that banks, insurers, and government offices ask for, so most couples order at least one.

On names, New Brunswick keeps it refreshingly simple. If you just want to use your spouse’s surname, you do not need a formal legal name change. You bring your official marriage certificate and government photo ID to a Service New Brunswick centre and begin using the married surname on your records. This assumed-name route is the one most people use, and it does not carry the fees and process of a legal change.

A formal legal change of name is a different, heavier animal, and you only need it if you want something beyond simply adopting a spouse’s surname. That process requires being a New Brunswick resident for at least three months, being 16 or older, a criminal record check, and fees (roughly $115 to change a given name and $130 for a surname). For most newlyweds, the marriage certificate plus photo ID is all it takes, so start with the easy path before assuming you need the complicated one.