Are marriage records open to the public?

Question:

Are marriage records open to the public?

I know it's an odd question, but I was just curious. For instance, if you were looking into your geneology, would you be able to find recent marriages, or would it be limited only to marriages recorded in the 1800's and such?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: In the US there is a federal law protecting those records for 72 years from the date of the event. That's why census records are only open to the public from 1930 back and why most of the genealogy sites don't have any records more recent than the 1920s. The way around it is to pull the newspapers from the town at that period and pull the public announcement. They did publish the list of marriage licenses issued until the late 1970s.