Married abroad is a choice that many future married couples make, and often the chosen destination is Italy!

Married abroad

As you can see in the “best venues” section in the menu of my site, in our beautiful country you are really spoiled for choice!

What do you dream about for your big day?

Elopements

The Elopement is one of the options, the “elopement”, the Spouses and families do it, it is a very intimate way of getting married abroad and with the participation of a few selected loved ones.

Often at a later date the couple decides to have a party with all their friends and relatives in their own country.

For Asian spouses it is also the way to be able to wear our clothes and make a photo shoot to show during the traditional wedding day.

Wedding in Italy

A Wedding in Italy, otherwise it can be made with more guests, (usually they never reach those of our traditional!)

In this case it is necessary to organize the reception and permanence of all.

Very often a welcome dinner is organized, the pizza party is very popular!

The wedding ritual

For the rite you can opt for the civil or symbolic one, the religious one is rarely required.

The bureaucratic procedures are not impossible to do, it is important to know, like our Agency, the procedure and the necessary documents, since Great Britain left the European Union, things have changed for its citizens (I intend to clarify all soon in another dedicated article).

How to choose it

– the civil ceremony.

The Italian law is clear: civil marriages must take place inside the municipal houses and must be celebrated by a registrar.

So if your desire is to really get married in a civil ceremony and you don’t want a quick and aseptic ceremony, you can only:

• opt for a location that is a detached municipal house;
• choose the celebrant of your wedding in the best way.
  

Who can celebrate a civil wedding?

If no specific request is presented, a registrar sent by the municipality will perform the marriage.

It could therefore be the mayor, the deputy mayor, an alderman or a municipal councilor, a member of the municipal council, or in the larger municipalities an employee of the municipality.

Is it possible to have a celebrant friend?

Absolutely yes!

Let’s see how to do it. The Italian Civil Code comes to our aid which states that:

the mayor, at his discretion, in order to celebrate a civil wedding, can delegate his role as registrar to an adult Italian citizen, who has the requisites to be elected city councilor. Only people who have a first-degree bond with one of the spouses are excluded.

Possible but not recommended

My advice, after having organized and taken part in so many civil ceremonies, is not to give such a heavy task all on the shoulders of a friend!

Celebrant must be clear that on the wedding day he is, not only formally, a registrar.

He won’t be able to celebrate as you imagine!

Consequently, he will have to have an appropriate attitude for the role he covers.

During the ceremony the tone and attitude should be formal. Jokes, strange intonations or any irreverent attitude are banned. The celebrant will have to strictly adhere to the reading of the text, provided by the municipal official who will be present at the wedding, without interruptions/pauses, variations to the text or attitudes/behaviours that are not in keeping with the moment and the role covered.

The municipality, on which the marriage depends, will send an official both to verify the progress of the ceremony and to bring the elements that make the marriage itself valid, namely: the banner, the civil status registers and the official tricolor band of which it must be dressed the celebrant so that his role is valid.

Official therefore has the task of verifying compliance with what is necessary and that the ceremony takes place according to the rules and has the power, if he deems it, to invalidate the ceremony, which is why it is necessary to be “following the required rules”.

Celebrants

Isn’t it nicer to let him participate and leave the tasks to the professionals?

Witnesses, family members and friends, if they wish, can read or dedicate a thought to the Spouses.

(the speakers can also be left for the reception!)

As Checco Zalone would say “he’s a professional”?!

There are Celebrants who do it with the right emphasis and dialectic, who I can celebrate independently or co-celebrate with a registrar sent by the municipality.

– the symbolic rite.

This type of ritual gives us full freedom of action, the Spouses can celebrate it in any venue.

Also in this case I strongly recommend choosing a professional Celebrant, who will be able to dictate the pace and mark the moments, insert if you wish, a personalized symbolic rite that will make everything more beautiful and unique!

– The religious rite

It is among the least chosen ones, not impossible but perhaps it is the one that presents some more difficulties.

Much also depends on the type of religion.

In addition to the bureaucratic part, the suitable Church will also have to be identified.

Start planning

This is certainly the least romantic part of organizing a wedding, but thinking of getting married abroad, it is where we start.

Trust a wedding planner, we assist and support the couples who choose us in everything.

It still remains to see all the rest of the Marriage!

Maybe we will do it in another article

Keep following us!

photo by Giovanni Scirocco