The Confidential Marriage License was originally created in the 1800's to protect confidentiality. At that time, it was common for people already living together not to get married because they feared that other people would learn that they weren't married all along. The Confiderntial Marriage License is not open record, which means it requires your signature to obtain a copy.

If you are married under the authority of a license issued by the County Clerk as opposed to the Confidential Marriage License, your license will be open to public inspection. Anyone who wishes may go to the County Clerk's office and look at marriage licenses. They may do this for any reason. Many business people regularly look through the marriage licenses to get information about the people which can be used for various solicitations such as the sale of life insurance.

But the Confidential Marriage Certificate is NOT available for this purpose. Only you may get certified copies of the Certificate. You are the only one who controls access to the document. If someone wants a copy of your certificate and you refuse to give it to them, they will have to get a court order to obtain it. Of course, the court would not give such an order to anyone without good cause.

The Confidential Marriage Certificates that we issue are filed in Monterey County. You can always get additional certified copies of your Marriage Certificate by writing to:

Monterey County Clerk
P.O. Box 29
Salinas, CA 93902
(831) 755-5450

The California Confidential Marriage Certificate does not require a blood test, and there is no waiting period. You must, however, both be at least 18 years old, and you must already be living together to quality for this Certificate.