Our travel agent said we would need a certified birth certificate, drivers license or gov. photo, and our marriage certificate. Do I need the original from the court house or will they accept the one we got from the church? Do they get real fussy about it? A friend of mine said she's never taken her marriage certificate and got through ok. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Are you talking about what you will need to enter a certain Caribbean country and what you will need to get back to your own country (US?)? If so, then a passport is always going to be your best bet. If you do not have a passport, you MUST have a government-issued photo ID (most people use driver's license in lieu of a passport), AND you must have an official birth certificate that has a raised seal. A photocopy of your birth certificate will not be sufficient.

If you're talking about what you need to get married, that varies from island to island. BUt you generally need proof of citizenship, proof of age, proof of single status (divorce or death decree, notarized). When I got married in Antigua, my husband needed his divorce decree, and we both used our passports.

Where are you going? Asking for your Marriage Certificate strikes me as extremely unusual. In, fact, I have never heard of it.

Marriage Certificates are used to prove that the Birth Certificate (official w/ Seal), is the same person as the Photo ID, since the names are NOT the same.
An original official Marriage Certificate, not a church certificate, is necessary.
It's easier just to get a passport, than to carry around all this paperwork.
With the new security measures. They are being far more careful matching ID's.

My mother was asked to show her marraige license upon arriving at Montego Bay Jamaica. I am glad that we had heard of this in advance, and were prepared.... They use the marraige license to show that the drivers license and birth certificate are the same person (last name change)

Now I am really glad I kept my name when I got married - I do not even know where my marriage certificate is. Fortunately, I can just stick with a passport.