When applying for a marriage license, Texas law requires that both parties present either a driver's license, certified birth certificate copy, a valid United States passport, military identification card, or Social Security Card for purposes of legal identification of the parties involved. (Note that any one of these items is sufficient. Multiple forms of identification are not necessary.)

No residency requirements apply to Texas marriage seekers so it is possible for engaged couples to plan one of the now popular "destination" weddings for their favorite spot in the Lone Star State. Before seeking a marriage license, Texas does recommend that applicants attend some form of pre-marriage counseling or education. Any such pre-marital preparatory course taken in the year before the request for the Texas marriage license meets the provision, but remember this is only a recommendation, not a requirement.

Laws regarding marriage in Texas do stipulate a thirty-day waiting period after a divorce for the issuance of a new marriage license, although this may be waived with a signed agreement from the divorced spouse. Normally there is also a three-day waiting period from the time a Texas marriage license is issued until the ceremony itself may take place but military personnel may also seek a waiver of this requirement.

Also included in the license for marriage in Texas is a statement certifying that no applicant is delinquent in the payment of child support. Applicants for a Texas marriage who are between the ages of fourteen and seventeen must have written parental permission.

Texas marriage law additionally provides for a proxy arrangement when one party cannot be present for the ceremony. For this arrangement to move forward, however, an affidavit of absence form is required and the stand-in must be an adult.

Cousins are not allowed marry in the State of Texas and same sex unions are also not allowed. In Texas those permitted to officiate at weddings include ministers of the Christian faith, Jewish rabbis, Catholic priests, officers whose religious groups have granted to them the right to officiate at weddings, justices of the peace, and a variety of state and federal judges.

If required, official copies of the certificate of marriage issued to all newlyweds are on file with and may be obtained from the Bureau of Vital Statistics, a division of the Texas Department of Health in the state capital, Austin, Texas. The marriage license itself is obtained from the county clerk's office of the county in which the couple plans to marry.

Although Texas law is not as liberal as that of some other states (in regard to the consanguinity of cousins or the sanction for same sex couples to marry), it does, on a whole, offer a fairly standard set of requirements for the issuance of a marriage license. The requirements of the law protect young people from rash, spontaneous marriages but do not stand in the way of consenting adults seeking to join together in matrimony.