How Fast Can You Get Married in Winnipeg?

Pretty darn fast, actually.

Couples can legally marry in Winnipeg (well, Manitoba overall) 24 hours after receiving a valid marriage licence. The real timeline, however, depends on officiant availability, the availability of your witnesses, your location, and the type and size of ceremony you want. 

The type of ceremony you choose is the number one factor determining how fast you can marry. In this article, I walk through each type of wedding or ceremony option available in Winnipeg and include the average timeline each one takes to plan so you can make an informed decision based on the timeline you have in mind for your own big day. Starting with the obvious and most popular:

The Traditional Wedding | 12-18 months

If you’re dreaming of planning a larger wedding with a venue, guest list (100- 300 people+), catering, photography, florals, rentals, and full coordination, expect to plan 12 to 18 months in advance, sometimes longer if your date lands inside peak season or you have an uncommon design or planning style in mind. Now, in Winnipeg, and certainly across Manitoba, there is no shortage of outstanding venues for bigger traditional-type weddings. Keep in mind though, this is the most popular category of weddings and especially in peak season, venues book often a year in advance.

The Micro Wedding | 4-6 months

Smaller weddings with fewer guests (15-50) fit in incredible venues large weddings cannot. However, just because they don't compete for venues with large weddings, doesn't mean there's no competition at all. Micro weddings were made popular during the Covid-19 pandemic to reduce celebration sizes and their popularity since then has only grown. With fewer to plan for, and less to decorate and prepare, (which significantly reduces the investments, too) it's not hard to see why they've stayed popular. The size and planning requirements usually means they can come together on average around half the time of a large wedding. Unless , of course, your decor includes glasses shipped in from Japan and flowers only grown on a full moon in Thailand. Okay, an exaggeration, but more complexities and you can expect that condensed timeline to stretch deeper into the future.

The Winnipeg City Hall Wedding | 6+ months

For a lot of couples, a simple civil ceremony at Winnipeg City Hall is ideal, and one upon a time, you could book one without having to look too far into the future. Well, due to popularity, even those timelines aren’t short anymore. At the time of writing this article, appointments are booking up to six months+ in advance, due in part to the fact that their weddings can only be booked on Friday afteroons (noon-3P) throughout the year, except holidays.

The Elopement Ceremony | 48 hours - 13 days+

If you still think eloping is couples running away to marry because they’re pregnant or their families disapprove, allow me to welcome you to the twenty-first century. Elopements haven’t just evolved, in many places in Canada, the US and Europe, their popularity is soaring. This is, of course, my favourite category. Sure, I'm a smidge biased. But also because I happen to hail from a long line of elopers. I eloped in Vegas. My parents eloped in a marriage commissioner's living room when I was 12 years old, my brother eloped. Heck, even my grandparents eloped in a back yard in Selkirk!)

Styled or unstyled elopement packages for 2 to 10 people are available with Brick & Vow in as little as 48 hours to 13 days. Even our elopement packages that involve seating, decor, florals, location sourcing, venue bookings, permits and insurance can be coordinated in a few as 2 weeks. You're the one who might need more time, and if that's the case, feel free to book with us up to a year in advance. But if you want it fast, our online bookings can be made 2-3 weeks before your ceremony, and we offer rush up to 48 hours before you want to marry. I know. I said pretty darn fast, didn't I?

The Legal Signing Ceremony | 48 hours - 4 weeks+

These ceremonies involve the least logistics, coordination, and most flexibility, as long as you are willing to compromise on style, decor and guest counts. Most commonly used by couples planning to marry in a destination wedding abroad to avoid foreign complicated legal paperwork, simple legal signings can happen as fast as your officiant, witnesses and 24-hour marriage license waiting window are available.  Brick & Vow offers online booking for simple signing ceremonies, with officiant (that's-a-me!), mobile to you, for $395, no taxes.

If you want even more in depth information regarding legal signing ceremonies, elopement packages, and other Winnipeg City Hall wedding alternatives here, you can read that article here.

And if you're looking for everything you need to know about getting a Manitoba marriage license, check out my complete guide here. 

Or check out all articles here.