Find Kent County Divorce Records

Getting a Marriage License in Kent County

Every Kent County marriage license comes from the County Clerk and Register of Deeds. Lisa Posthumus Lyons has led that office since being sworn in during January 2017, and the same division stores original vital records, handles elections, registers notaries and businesses, and files military discharges. In-person marriage applications are taken at the clerk counter at 300 Monroe Avenue NW, Floor 1, in Grand Rapids. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., though it stops processing in-person applications after 4:30 p.m., so plan to arrive with time to spare.

A few eligibility rules apply before the counter can issue a license. Both applicants and their witnesses must be at least 18 years old. The couple must already have a wedding date scheduled with an authorized officiant, and the ceremony has to take place within 33 days of the application. If the ceremony will be conducted in English, both applicants must understand English. The office reviews the paperwork, collects the fee, and holds the license through a short waiting period before it can be picked up.

The county clerk page walks applicants through each of these rules before they visit. That page is at the County Clerk and Register of Deeds site.

The clerk office is the single point of contact for issuing licenses and, later, for selling certified copies of the marriage record it creates.

How to Apply for a Marriage License

The application moves quickly once the couple has a set wedding date and the right documents in hand. Because the office will not process an in-person application after 4:30 p.m., timing the visit matters as much as the paperwork. The steps below follow the county clerk's own sequence from scheduling through the return of the signed license.

1. Schedule the wedding date with an authorized officiant before applying, since the office requires a set ceremony date and the wedding must happen within 33 days of the application.
2. Gather a government-issued photo ID, a government birth certificate, and the Social Security number for each applicant.
3. Apply at the county clerk counter at 300 Monroe Avenue NW, Floor 1, in Grand Rapids during office hours; in-person applications are not processed after 4:30 p.m.
4. Pay the license fee, which is $20 when at least one applicant lives in Kent County and the wedding is in Michigan, or $30 when both applicants live out of state and the wedding is in Kent County.
5. Wait the required 3 days, then return to pick up the finished license.
6. After the ceremony, make sure the signed license is returned to the clerk within 10 days so the marriage can be recorded.

Note: The 3-day wait runs from the application, so applying well ahead of a wedding scheduled within the 33-day window keeps the license ready in time.

Marriage License Application Requirements

The counter clerk checks identity, age, and the planned ceremony before issuing anything. Applicants bring proof of who they are and confirm the details of the wedding they have already booked. The table below lists what each applicant provides and which items are always required versus conditional.

The application details, including the fee split and the pickup rule, are published on the county's Get a Marriage License page.

Reviewing that page before the visit keeps the counter step short, since the couple arrives with every required item already in hand.

Marriage Ceremonies in Kent County District Courts

A license lets a couple marry, and several Kent County district courts also perform the ceremony itself. The 63rd District Court, at 1950 E Beltline Ave NE in Grand Rapids, holds marriage ceremonies on Mondays and Tuesdays at 3:30 p.m. The court charges a $10 ceremony fee and limits its ceremony list to couples who hold a valid Michigan marriage license and bring two adult witnesses.

The 63rd is not the only option. The county notes that the 61st, 59th, and 62-B District Courts offer resident-only wedding options, so couples living in those court districts can look to their local court for a civil ceremony. A witness must be an adult, matching the age rule that already applies to the applicants themselves.

The 63rd District Court marriage page lists its ceremony days, fee, and witness rule in full. That page is at the 63rd District Court marriage site.

Booking a court ceremony still depends on the license from the county clerk, so the license comes first and the ceremony follows within the 33-day window.

Kent County Marriage and Divorce Fees

Costs fall into three groups: the license itself, copies of a recorded marriage, and copies of a divorce judgment. The license fee depends on where the applicants live and where the wedding takes place. Copy fees depend on the record type and how many copies of the same record are ordered at once. Online orders add a convenience fee, and search and convenience fees are non-refundable.

The research fee applies only when the office has to search for a record it cannot find from the name or details supplied, usually because of a spelling issue or a case that is not in the system.

How to Look Up Kent County Marriage Records

Marriage records are public, so anyone may buy a copy of a Kent County marriage record. The county clerk sells copies three ways: in person at the clerk counter, by mail, and online. The first copy of a record costs $10, and each additional copy of the same record costs $3. Online orders add a convenience fee on top of the copy price, and both the search fee and the convenience fee are non-refundable even if the record is not found.

To find a record, the office works from the names on the marriage and the date, so having the correct spelling and the approximate year makes the search faster. The county publishes request forms in both English and Spanish, which helps applicants who order by mail rather than at the counter.

The certified marriage copy page lists the fee schedule and the online and mail options side by side. That page is the county's Marriage Records page.

Because the marriage copy comes from the clerk rather than a court, this is a separate request from the divorce judgment order described below.

How to Find Kent County Divorce Records

Divorce judgments in Kent County come from the 17th Circuit Court, not the county clerk. The court keeps the divorce case file, and its certified-record portal sells certified copies of a judgment of divorce for $15 each. Orders placed through the portal are processed and shipped within 5 business days, so a certified copy usually arrives about a week after the request. The same office also handles the paper file for older or non-digitized cases at the clerk counter, and its staff cannot give legal advice about a case.

The online order form asks for the plaintiff and defendant names, maiden names if they differ, gender, the divorce year, and the case number if it is known. When only a year is entered, the court searches one year before and one year after that year, which helps when the exact date is uncertain. If the case cannot be found because of a spelling problem or because it is not in the system, the court charges a $6 research fee. Certified copies of a divorce judgment are the ones needed for legal purposes, and they are handled through the Kent County Clerk of Court record-order process.

The divorce request form is hosted on the county's certified-record portal at the divorce judgment request form.

The field list below shows exactly what the form collects before it runs a divorce search.

Divorce Request Form Fields

The portal form is short, but a few fields are mandatory and others only matter when the details are known. Entering both parties' names and the divorce year is enough to start a search; the maiden-name and case-number fields simply narrow the results. The table lists each field, its type, whether it is required, and how the court uses it.

Note: The year dropdown includes an Unknown option, so a search can proceed even when the couple does not remember the exact year of the divorce.

Vital Records Versus Court Records

The split between the two offices is the single most useful thing to understand about Kent County marriage and divorce records. A marriage record is a vital record. The County Clerk and Register of Deeds creates it, stores the original, and sells certified copies, the same office that also holds birth and death records and moved to an imaged filing system back in 2005. A divorce judgment is a court record. It lives in the 17th Circuit Court file and is ordered through the court's certified-record portal, not the vital-records counter.

That is why a marriage certificate and a divorce judgment take two different requests, two different fee schedules, and, often, two different trips. The county clerk overview explains the vital-records side and what the office keeps on file. It is published at the clerk office About Us page.

Applicants who need both a marriage certificate and a divorce judgment can start with the Kent County Clerk vital records counter for the marriage copy, then place a separate circuit-court order for the divorce judgment.