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A significant shift is underway among West Coast couples who are abandoning pricey, elaborate wedding celebrations in favor of streamlined civil ceremonies at courthouses. The surge in demand for these straightforward nuptials has created intense competition for available appointment slots at municipal buildings throughout California, according to reporting from the Los Angeles Times.
Santa Barbara County Clerk Melinda Greene said marriage appointments disappear rapidly upon release, with couples traveling internationally to secure dates. Available time slots are being claimed months ahead of time, though some engaged pairs manage to book last-minute openings when they become available.
What was once considered a casual elopement option has evolved into what photographers and planners now describe as a highly competitive endeavor. Asha Marshall, a photographer specializing in intimate ceremonies, noted that clients must be prepared to log in at precise times to claim appointments, a process that generates considerable stress among brides.
The trend toward micro-weddings has been fueled partly by social media exposure of celebrity wedding venues. Santa Barbara’s Spanish Moorish revival courthouse has become particularly desirable after hosting the weddings of Vice President Kamala Harris to Doug Emhoff and musician Travis Barker to Kourtney Kardashian. Roy Lee, a Santa Barbara County supervisor, reported the courthouse processes dozens of wedding ceremonies daily beginning at 8 a.m.
San Francisco City Hall, the site of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio’s 1954 wedding, continues to be a premier destination for courthouse ceremonies, hosting approximately 7,000 weddings annually. The timing of this trend coincides with Generation Z—individuals born between 1997 and 2012—reaching peak marrying years, with the oldest members now approaching the average marriage age of 28.
According to Zola, a wedding-planning and registry company that surveyed over 11,500 couples planning 2026 weddings, this generation is reshaping the wedding industry through its preferences and spending patterns. Gen Z couples are integrating TikTok and artificial intelligence into wedding planning, offering both cocktails and mocktails, and emphasizing mental wellness considerations.
Despite the popularity of affordable courthouse options, the average wedding still costs $36,000, with guest counts remaining stable at around 145 people. Zola’s research indicates that 85 percent of couples believe their wedding expenses will be justified, and overall wedding-related spending grew 8.5 percent year-over-year through June 2026, according to Bank of America data.
Consumer behavior is shifting in other ways as well, with couples spending less on one-time formal wear purchases while lab-grown diamonds gain continued market acceptance as a more economical alternative to traditional stones.
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