"Contacting an imam for the marriage" is often the first reflex of a couple who want to conclude their nikah. The step is understandable, and it is often useful. But it rests on an idea worth checking: that the contract needs an imam in order to exist. Here is what the fatwas of Shaykh Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz say, quoted with their links.
What the contract requires
Asked about the marriage contract, Shaykh Ibn Baz lists those who make it:
"Marriage brings together four people: the wali, the husband and the two witnesses. That is the legislated marriage."
The imam does not appear in that list. The contract is made by the wali's offer, "I have given her to you in marriage", and the husband's acceptance, "I accept", before two witnesses. It is the wali who gives in marriage, not an officiant.
Before whom the contract can be concluded
Asked about the moment and the place of the contract, the Shaykh answers:
"That is what is legislated, in the presence of two upright witnesses; it suffices, at the madhun's or at someone else's, at the judge's, or in any place."
The madhun is the person authorised to register marriages in some Muslim countries. The fatwa names several possibilities and imposes none of them: "it suffices" as long as the wali, the husband and two upright witnesses are there.
The khutbah of the nikah: preferable, not required
What people most often expect from an imam is the khutbah, the marriage sermon. On this point, Shaykh Ibn Baz answers:
"Whoever recites the well-known khutbah, the one that begins with: praise belongs to Allah, there is no harm in it, and it is preferable; and if he does not recite it, there is no fault."
Why calling on an imam is still a good idea
That the imam is not a condition of the contract does not make him useless. In practice, he is often the one who knows the conditions and checks that they are met, who delivers the khutbah, and whose presence helps the family give the moment the gravity it deserves. Reaching out to an imam or a mosque for one's nikah is therefore a sensible step. What one should simply know is what founds the validity of the contract: the wali, the consent, the offer and the acceptance, the two witnesses. The full list is on the page What makes a nikah valid.
Can imams themselves get married?
The question is surprising, but it really is asked, often by analogy with the celibacy of priests. In Islam, "imam" is not a sacerdotal status: the word designates the one who leads the prayer, and there is no clergy to whom marriage would be closed. The fatwas quoted above describe the legislated marriage for every Muslim, without singling out the imam: nothing in them subjects his marriage to any conditions other than everyone else's.
How this translates on Nikah
The platform plays no part in the contract itself: the nikah is concluded between the wali, the husband and the witnesses, within your community. What Nikah frames is everything that comes before: the photo-free matching, the human moderation of every message, the wali entered at sign-up and present at the mouqabalah. When the moment of the contract arrives, the process has had a witness from day one.