Are those beach side marriages legit?

Do you mean, are they legal marriages in the eyes of the state? Or are they real marriages in the eyes of God?

Why wouldn't they be? What you're talking about are matters of culture and taste (or lack thereof).

As long as they end up with a marriage licence/certificate then they're legally married.

ThisIsMe123 said:

I had a friend that got married recently. a devout Christian. But he had an attorney friend marry him to a woman on the beach. The typical "Both dress in full white, casual clothing" type of wedding. AKA a Civil marriage.

I guess he didn't want to marry under a church roof. Some do it in their own back yards.

I've even knew of an atheist Justice of the Peace (or someone that can legally marry people) to marry couples.

But are they really legit and real marriages?

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Adam and Eve where married in a Garden, not a building. The only witness was God. It was legit.

If all the legal boxes were checked and the marriage was consummated, then biblically and legally they are married. Is it ideal? That really depends.

As long as they were both Biblically eligible to marry, yes. To claim otherwise is to claim that the vast majority of unbelievers throughout history could not have been married - no churches and no Christian ministers to officiate. However, the language of 1 Corinthians 7:12-14 indicates a pre-existing state of marriage between couples prior to one of them converting. Therefore, they would have been seen by God as married, and therefore, a Christian minister is not necessary to officiate a binding marriage in God's sight.

General rule with a few exceptions: If the government considers you married, you're married. If it does not, you are not.

Some exceptions would be common-law marriages which are not true marriages, gay marriage which is not accepted in God's eyes as marriage, and people who marry while being persecuted by their governments without their governments approval.

Some things that are not valid exceptions are two people who get "married" by saying vows to each other without any officiality attached to it and saying something like "it's not needed to be married in government eyes", or "we can't afford a proper wedding at the moment".

This comes from the principle (which can be found in Romans and throughout scripture) of being subject to governing powers.

Underwater wedding!

Seems like it would be a legal wedding to me

Why wouldn't God consider a common law marriage to be a real marriage? I think the fact that you represent yourself as married and live as married, it would be seen as marriage by God and then under all of God's rules for marriage. I don't know that there is an official way to get married in the Bible beyond acting married.