How to Get Married Online in Maine | 4 Fast & Simple Steps

By Distant Vows | Updated 2026

If you are trying to figure out how to get married online in Maine, you will quickly discover that Maine still relies on a municipal clerk system where both partners must appear in person together to file a document called the Intention to Marry, pay the license fee, and receive a license valid for only 90 days within the state.

Maine has no waiting period once the license is issued, but it has restrictions that other states do not, including a 21-day waiting period after a divorce before either person may remarry and a rule that out-of-state Notaries and Justices of the Peace cannot officiate weddings in Maine. By using Utah’s fully legal online marriage system through Distant Vows, Maine couples can get married online in Maine 100% virtually and receive a U.S. marriage certificate that is valid in Maine and all 50 states.

If you are comparing rules across the country, you can also review our full guide on how to get married online in all 50 states. It is a helpful starting point if you want to understand how Maine compares with other states and why many couples choose Utah’s online marriage system.

How Maine Marriage Usually Works if You Don’t Get Married Online in Maine

Maine marriages are governed by Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A. Rather than a generic application, Maine uses a specific document called the Intention to Marry form, which both partners must complete together before visiting a municipal town or city clerk’s office. Maine residents must file the Intention to Marry in the clerk’s office of the municipality where at least one of them resides. If only one partner lives in Maine, the couple must file in that partner’s municipality.

Non-residents of Maine may file in the clerk’s office of any town or city in the state. Once the license is issued, it is valid for use anywhere in Maine for 90 days from the filing date — a restriction that does not apply when you get married online in Maine through Utah’s 32-day license system.

There is no waiting period in Maine once the Intention to Marry is filed and the license is issued. The license fee is $40, and both parties must sign the license before it can be issued. However, some town offices, particularly in rural areas, are not staffed full-time, and Maine.gov advises couples to call ahead to confirm hours.

Bar Harbor’s town clerk notes that during peak season, preparing the license may require a return visit the following day — another logistical factor that couples who get married online in Maine through Utah avoid entirely.

Maine requires that the post-marriage legal name each person plans to use be declared on the Intention to Marry form at the time of filing. Unlike most states, Maine allows either partner to change to any name upon marriage, not just the spouse’s surname. However, if no name change is declared at the time of filing and a name change is later desired, it must go through probate court. The name on the form cannot be changed after filing without a court order.

Maine also has a notable post-divorce restriction that few states share. Under Maine law, there is a 21-day waiting period after the date a divorce is granted before either former spouse may remarry. Some municipalities, including South Portland, enforce this strictly and will not issue a marriage license until the 21-day period has fully elapsed.

Maine does not have a Justice of the Peace, and out-of-state Notaries and Justices of the Peace are explicitly prohibited from officiating weddings in Maine. Maine does not recognize common-law marriage. For long-term couples who want to establish legal married status, a formal license and ceremony are the only path — which is why the ability to get married online in Maine through Utah is so valuable for couples who cannot both appear at a Maine town office.

Documents, Waiting Period, and Age Requirements in Maine

Applicants must be at least 18 years old to marry in Maine without additional authorization. Applicants who are under 18 require written parental or guardian consent. Applicants under 16 require both written parental consent and written consent of a judge. The consent documents must be presented at the town or city clerk’s office at the time of filing.

Municipal clerks across Maine list the following as standard requirements at the time the Intention to Marry is filed:

Valid government-issued photo ID for each applicant, such as a driver’s license, state ID, or passport. The ID must be valid and not expired.
Both applicants’ parents’ birthplaces, meaning the state or country where each parent was born, which Maine collects for vital records purposes.
If either applicant was previously married or in a civil union and the relationship ended in divorce, a certified copy of the divorce decree with a raised seal must be presented. A photocopy is not accepted. If the most recent marriage ended with the death of a spouse, a certified copy of the death certificate is required.
If either applicant’s divorce was finalized fewer than 21 days before the filing date, the license may not be issued until the 21-day period has passed.
The post-marriage legal name each person will use, declared at the time of filing on the Intention to Marry form.

Two witnesses who are at least 18 years old must be present at the ceremony. The officiant cannot also serve as a witness. After the ceremony, the officiant is responsible for returning the completed license to the issuing town or city clerk’s office within seven days. Maine does not have a Justice of the Peace, and authorized officiants include ordained ministers, judges, and Maine Notaries. Out-of-state officiants may in certain circumstances be granted individual authorization by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services if they are authorized to perform marriages in their home state, but this requires a separate application process.

Are Online Weddings Allowed Directly if You Want to Get Married Online in Maine?

Bar Harbor and some other Maine municipalities allow couples to download and complete the Intention to Marry form before their in-person visit, and Bar Harbor specifically states that out-of-state couples may submit their form by mail along with the fee and any required certified documents. However, the license itself must be picked up in person, and the ceremony must take place within the state of Maine using that license.

Maine law does not provide any mechanism for a marriage to be completed entirely by video under a Maine license, which is a primary reason couples who want to get married online in Maine turn to Utah’s system. The ceremony must be performed in person within the state by an authorized Maine officiant. Out-of-state Notaries and Justices of the Peace are explicitly barred. These restrictions are why so many couples who want to get married online in Maine choose to marry under Utah law through a live video ceremony and use their Utah marriage certificate in Maine instead.

4 Steps to Get Married Online in Maine with Distant Vows (Through Utah)

With Distant Vows, the same four-step process applies whether you want to get married online in Maine, New York, Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania. The legal engine is always Utah’s online marriage system, which allows couples to apply for a license and hold a ceremony entirely over video while still being recognized nationwide.

Step 1 – Verify Your Eligibility

First, you confirm that you and your partner meet basic Utah requirements and complete Distant Vows’ quick intake form. Typically, you both must be 18 or older, not currently married to anyone else, and able to join a live video call together. This foundation lets couples who want to get married online in Maine do so in a way that is fully valid under Utah law.

Confirm you are legally free to marry, whether single, divorced, or widowed.
Gather valid government-issued photo IDs, such as a Maine driver’s license, state ID, passport, or military ID.
Make sure you have a stable internet connection and a device with audio and video so you can comfortably get married online in Maine.

Step 2 – Choose Your Package and Ceremony Date

Next, you choose a Distant Vows package and select a ceremony date and time that works for your schedule in Portland, Bangor, Augusta, Lewiston, Bar Harbor, or anywhere else. You can keep the ceremony short and simple or personalize it with vows, readings, and guests watching online as you get married online in Maine.

Select a basic legal-only ceremony or a more personalized experience.
Pick a time that works for your time zone and any guests joining from Maine or overseas.
Tell us if you need witness support, custom vows, religious or civil wording, or language options.

Step 3 – Apply for Your Utah Online Marriage License

After you pick your date, you complete a Utah online marriage license application. Utah County’s system lets you submit everything digitally, including your information, ID uploads, and signatures. You never have to visit a Utah courthouse, you face no 21-day post-divorce restriction, and you do not need to appear at a Maine town or city clerk’s office, because the license is issued by Utah even though your goal is to get married online in Maine.

Fill out the secure Utah County application form online from your home in Maine or anywhere in the world.
Upload clear images of your IDs and any requested documents, such as divorce decrees if applicable.
Respond to any brief follow-up from the Utah clerk if they need clarification before issuing the license.

A Utah online marriage license is valid for 32 days from the date it is issued, and Distant Vows schedules your ceremony within that 32-day window so your marriage is properly created under Utah law.

Step 4 – Attend Your Online Ceremony and Get Your Certificate

On your wedding day, you and your partner join a live video ceremony with a Utah-licensed officiant. Two adult witnesses are required and they can join from anywhere in the world. If you do not have friends or family available, you can invite them at no charge, or use our witness service for a small fee.

Join from your home in Maine or from anywhere in the world, as long as you are both on the same live video call.
Participate in a real-time ceremony where you exchange vows and say your “I dos.” This is the moment you actually get married online in Maine, even though the legal ceremony is taking place under Utah law.
After the ceremony, your officiant files the certificate in Utah and you receive your official Utah County marriage certificate digitally and, if requested, by mail.

Maine In-Person Marriage vs Online Utah Marriage

Before you decide how to get married online in Maine, it helps to compare the two approaches side by side. The table below shows the key differences between the traditional Maine municipal clerk process and using Distant Vows to get married online in Maine through Utah.

Feature	Traditional Maine Marriage	Get Married Online with Distant Vows (Utah)
License document	Intention to Marry form, filed at the municipal clerk’s office. Residents file in their home municipality. Non-residents can file in any Maine municipality.	Utah County online marriage license application. No in-person visit required.
In-person appearance	Both partners must appear together in person at the clerk’s office and sign the license before it can be issued.	No in-person visits required. Everything is completed online.
Waiting period	No waiting period after the license is issued. However, a 21-day waiting period applies after a divorce before either person may remarry in Maine.	No waiting period. Utah does not impose a post-divorce remarriage waiting period.
License validity	90 days from the date the Intention to Marry is filed. Ceremony must take place within Maine.	Utah license valid for 32 days. Ceremony can be attended from Maine or anywhere in the world.
Name change declaration	Post-marriage name must be declared on the Intention to Marry form at time of filing. Changes after submission require a court order. Maine allows any name, not just the spouse’s surname.	No pre-declaration required. Name change is handled separately after the ceremony using your Utah certificate.
Officiant restrictions	Maine has no Justice of the Peace. Out-of-state Notaries and Justices of the Peace are prohibited from officiating in Maine. Out-of-state ministers need individual DHHS authorization.	Not applicable. Distant Vows officiants are licensed under Utah law.
Officiant filing deadline	Officiant must return the completed license to the issuing town or city clerk’s office within seven days of the ceremony.	Distant Vows officiants file with Utah County on your behalf after the ceremony.
Valid in Maine	Yes.	Yes, and in all 50 states once properly issued and filed in Utah, because Maine recognizes marriages that are valid where they were performed.
International use	May require apostille or legalization depending on the foreign country’s rules.	Utah certificates can receive an apostille for use in many countries, even if you get married online in Maine. Learn more at Distant Vows apostille services.

Military Couples in Maine

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, located on Seavey Island in the Piscataqua River at Kittery, is the oldest continuously operating naval shipyard in the United States, established on June 12, 1800, during the Adams administration. Despite being named for nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the shipyard sits on Maine soil and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The shipyard spans 297 acres and employs approximately 8,000 civilian workers and 200 military personnel, with a total annual economic impact exceeding $1 billion for southern Maine and adjacent New Hampshire communities.

Portsmouth is one of only four remaining public naval shipyards in the country, specializing in the overhaul and modernization of nuclear-powered attack submarines, maintaining approximately 10 to 12 Los Angeles-class and Virginia-class vessels per year. In 2024, the Navy announced a $1.73 billion dry dock expansion at Portsmouth, one of the largest capital infrastructure investments at any naval installation in the country.

Bangor Air National Guard Base is home to the 101st Air Refueling Wing, which operates the KC-135 Stratotanker and conducts approximately 1,200 in-flight refueling missions per year supporting Air Force, Navy, and allied nation aircraft across the globe. The base employs approximately 1,000 personnel and is located adjacent to Bangor International Airport.

Naval Air Station Brunswick, closed in 2011 as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure decisions, was Maine’s major aviation installation for more than 60 years and home to P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft. The former base has since been redeveloped as Brunswick Landing, a mixed-use community of businesses, residential developments, and the Southern Maine Community College Brunswick campus, managed by the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority.

For sailors and civilian workers at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard who want to get married online in Maine but whose partners are in a different state or deployed, the in-person clerk requirement and 21-day post-divorce restriction create real barriers. Utah online marriage eliminates both when couples choose to get married online in Maine through Distant Vows. Both partners join a live video ceremony from wherever they are, no Maine town clerk visit is required, and Utah imposes no post-divorce waiting period. It is one of the main reasons sailors at Portsmouth choose to get married online in Maine through Distant Vows. You can read more about how this works for service members at Distant Vows for Military Couples.

Immigration and Long-Distance Couples in Maine

Maine has a smaller immigrant population than most states, with immigrants making up approximately 4 percent of the state’s total residents, according to Census data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute. However, the composition of Maine’s immigrant community is notably different from national patterns. According to MPI’s 2025 analysis of pooled 2019-2023 American Community Survey data, approximately half of Maine’s foreign-born residents come from Asia and Europe, about 20 percent come from Africa, and about 19 percent come from Canada, primarily French-Canadian border communities in Aroostook County and the Saint John Valley. Immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean make up only about 10 percent of Maine’s foreign-born population, far below the national average.

Lewiston has become home to one of the most well-documented Somali communities in the United States. Beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, thousands of Somali immigrants who had initially resettled in other U.S. cities undertook a secondary migration to Lewiston, drawn by the city’s low crime rate, affordable housing, and reputation for safe public schools.

By 2013, approximately 10,000 Somali residents lived in the Portland and Lewiston areas combined, and the community has since become deeply woven into the civic and economic fabric of both cities. In 2024, three Somali-born legislators served in the Maine House of Representatives, and Deqa Dhalac, a native of Mogadishu, served as mayor of South Portland after being elected to the Maine legislature in 2022. Somali is the most common non-English language in Lewiston’s public schools, accounting for approximately 90 percent of limited-English students in the district.

Portland has more recently become a significant destination for asylum seekers from sub-Saharan Africa, Central Africa, and South America. According to the MPI 2025 report on Maine’s immigrant communities, the top countries of origin among humanitarian arrivals to Maine in fiscal year 2024 were Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Syria, with earlier years also showing significant numbers from Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

For binational couples where one partner remains abroad and who want to get married online in Maine, the in-person clerk requirement and the restriction on out-of-state officiants make the traditional route difficult to complete without both partners in Maine at the same time. When you choose to get married online in Maine through Utah, your partner can be anywhere in the world. The Utah County certificate is accepted by USCIS for spousal visa and green card applications. If you need your marriage recognized in another country, Distant Vows can help you obtain an apostille so your certificate is accepted internationally. You can learn more at Distant Vows apostille services.

Couples researching international marriage recognition may also want to read our guide on whether getting married online affects immigration cases.

Using Your Utah Certificate in Maine

After you get married online in Maine through Utah, your certified Utah County marriage certificate is your primary legal document for updating your records. Maine agencies and businesses accept any valid U.S. marriage certificate and do not require it to be Maine-issued.

Change your name with the Social Security Administration first. Maine’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles checks SSA records for name changes on driver’s licenses, so updating SSA before visiting the BMV prevents delays.
Update your Maine driver’s license or state ID through the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles. This step is the same whether you get married online in Maine through Utah or used a traditional Maine license.
Adjust your name and marital status with banks, employers, schools, and insurance providers.
Use your certificate for USCIS spousal visa and green card applications.

One practical advantage for couples who get married online in Maine through Utah: because you are not using a Maine license, you are not required to declare your post-marriage name at the time of application. You handle the name change separately after the ceremony using your Utah certificate, which gives you more flexibility than the Maine system provides. Maine allows any name upon marriage, not just a spouse’s surname, but that flexibility is lost if the Intention to Marry form is not correctly completed at the time of filing.

Many couples also use their marriage certificate to complete a legal name change after the ceremony. You can learn more in our guide on how to change your name after getting married online. This guide is especially useful for couples who get married online in Maine and want to understand the name change steps for Maine-specific agencies.

Related Online Marriage Guides

If you are researching how to get married online in Maine or other New England states, you may also want to read:

FAQ: Getting Married Online in Maine

Is it legal to get married online in Maine?
Maine recognizes marriages that are valid where they are performed. When you get married online in Maine through Utah’s system, your marriage is valid in Utah and must be recognized in Maine even though the ceremony happens over video. Maine’s own requirements about in-person clerk visits, authorized officiants, and in-state ceremonies apply only to Maine marriage licenses, not to marriages legally performed in Utah.

Do we still need to file an Intention to Marry form in Maine?
No. If you choose the Utah online route, your license is issued by Utah County, not by a Maine municipal clerk. You do not need to file a Maine Intention to Marry form or appear at any Maine town office. Couples who get married online in Maine through Utah complete the entire process digitally, and the resulting certificate is fully valid in Maine.

What documents are required under the traditional Maine process?
Both applicants must appear together at the town or city clerk’s office, present valid photo ID, and provide their parents’ birthplaces. If either applicant was previously married, a certified copy with a raised seal of the divorce decree or death certificate is required. The post-marriage name each person will use must be declared on the form at time of filing.

Does Maine really have no Justice of the Peace?
Correct. Maine eliminated the Justice of the Peace office for marriage purposes, and Maine.gov states explicitly that out-of-state Notaries and Justices of the Peace cannot officiate weddings in Maine. This is why so many couples choose to get married online in Maine through the Utah system, where Distant Vows officiants are licensed under Utah law and no Maine authorization is needed. Authorized officiants include ordained ministers, Maine judges, and Maine Notaries. Out-of-state officiants may apply for individual authorization through DHHS. The Utah online route uses Utah-licensed officiants, so no Maine authorization is required.

What is the 21-day post-divorce rule in Maine?
Under Maine law, neither party in a divorce may remarry for 21 days after the divorce is granted. Some municipalities strictly enforce this and will not issue a license until the 21 days have elapsed. Utah does not impose a post-divorce remarriage waiting period, so couples who need to get married online in Maine quickly after a divorce find the Utah route significantly faster than waiting out Maine’s 21-day restriction.

Can military couples at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard get married online in Maine?
Yes. Both partners join the ceremony by video from wherever they are. A sailor on deployment or stationed at another installation can participate from anywhere while the other partner remains in Maine or elsewhere. You can read more at Distant Vows for Military Couples.

Can same-sex couples get married online this way?
Yes. Maine voters approved same-sex marriage by referendum in November 2012, making it the first state to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. Same-sex couples who want to get married online in Maine can do so through Utah and receive the same legal certificate as any other couple.

How fast can we get married online from Maine?
Many couples complete all four steps and receive their digital certificate within a few days. Rush options are available for couples who need to get married online in Maine on a tighter timeline. Whether you are in Portland, Lewiston, or a small coastal town, the process to get married online in Maine is identical.

For details on Maine’s traditional marriage license requirements, the Maine.gov marriage guide and the Bangor City Clerk both publish official guidance. For couples who want to get married online in Maine without the in-person clerk visit, 21-day post-divorce restriction, or officiant authorization hurdles, Distant Vows handles everything remotely.

Ready to Get Married Online in Maine?

If you are ready to get married online in Maine, Distant Vows makes the process simple. Every week, couples across the state choose to get married online in Maine through our four-step system walks you from eligibility to your official U.S. marriage certificate, with licensed Utah officiants, witness support, and clear guidance at every stage.

Start today, choose your date, and let us handle the legal details so you can get married online in Maine without leaving home. Couples from Portland, Bangor, Lewiston, Augusta, Kittery, and across the state choose Distant Vows to get married online in Maine every week. You can begin by completing our intake form at get married online.

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