Weddings abroad: Italy, France?...

dingdongavoncalling

Is this anything anyone has got any experience of and would be able to share? It's just something we are considering at the moment and seeing if it is realistic. It doesn't have too be France or Italy but just thinking of places not too far away (Mexico etc are out of the question, too far to travel for us I think)

I'm not sure if you can get married in France, I think they only do blessings as you have to be a resident there to marry?

johannalf88

I have heard in France you have to have been in the country for 40 days to marry, n a civil ceremony can only be done in the town hall. (I think).

joho

What about Greece or Cyprus? We got married in Lindos, Rhodes at St Pauls Chapel, and there are other Lindian brides on here too. We used a wedding planner who did everything for us. You have to be in the country 5 days before the wedding.

A friend's sister recently got married in France. They had a humanist ceremony (i.e. stood in a field) so there were no restrictive legalities about being there for 40 days or anything like that.

A few brides on here have also got married in Gibraltar.

If I can help further with Greece, don't hesitate to ask.
Jo x

dingdongavoncalling

joho wrote: »

What about Greece or Cyprus? We got married in Lindos, Rhodes at St Pauls Chapel, and there are other Lindian brides on here too. We used a wedding planner who did everything for us. You have to be in the country 5 days before the wedding.

A friend's sister recently got married in France. They had a humanist ceremony (i.e. stood in a field) so there were no restrictive legalities about being there for 40 days or anything like that.

A few brides on here have also got married in Gibraltar.

If I can help further with Greece, don't hesitate to ask.
Jo x

Thanks for your help, can I ask how long the flights are? Is it about 4 hours? One of our close family doesn't like flying so the shorter the flight the better.

DKLS

I went to a friends wedding this year in Sorrento, it was lovely very romantic location for the ceremony, fairly easy to arrange from what I can gather and an amazing wedding breakfast where they kept bringing out more and more food followed by a party on the roof overlooking the amalfi coast.

dingdongavoncalling

DKLS wrote: »

I went to a friends wedding this year in Sorrento, it was lovely very romantic location for the ceremony, fairly easy to arrange from what I can gather and an amazing wedding breakfast where they kept bringing out more and more food followed by a party on the roof overlooking the amalfi coast.

This sounds lovely, do you know how they went about organising it?

DKLS

dingdongavoncalling wrote: »

This sounds lovely, do you know how they went about organising it?

I will send them an email

fawny

Hiya,

I'm getting married at St Paul's Bay in Lindos in just over 2 weeks:j:jCan't wait. We have used a wedding planner who lives over there & she is amazing(same planner as Joho) They have made everything simple, you get a uk consulation in the winter to really get everything sorted out & they are just on the other end of the phone or email whenever you want. We have been there many times before but I still had loads of questions & have bugged her to death over the last 18months but she has been great. They have helped with all the paperwork, I'm sure I heard recently that there is no miniumum time you have to be there before the wedding now but 5 days is a good amount of time to get settled, get a bit of a tan & sort out the last min stuff with the planner. We fly out on the Wed, on the Fri we meet with the planner again to run through everything & she will come to the venue with us so we can meet them & just confirm everything.

Costwise it can be as cheap or expensive as you want really as there are so many places to host your reception it caters for all budgets. We are coming in at just under 8k but this is everything except my dress, so legal stuff, planners fee, rings, groom & best man suits, bm dress,shoes & stuff, flowers, holiday, 3 nights in a rather expensive boutique hotel in Lindos as a honeymoon, drinks on the beach, boat cruise, welcome drinks, meals, drink, etc.

We have 13 guests coming with us so we have a good number, a lot of our friends are school teachers so they can't come even though they would have if it had been in school holidays, but they have all understood it's what we want to do. Some people are coming for 2 weeks, others a week. We said to people it's their holiday so they can do as they please, join us if they want on a night or not depending on how they feel so everyone is really relaxed about it & looking forward to it.

it's just over 4 hours to Rhodes.
Cheers Fawny x

ladypike

Im getting married in France (well civil ceremony here....sssshhhh dont tell anyone) and a service in France (which to all our friends and family that will be 'the real ceremony'.)

We are getting married at a chateau 40 minutes from st Malo. Its easy for all our friends and family to come accross and join us, they can either come via ferry or eurotunnel.

You can sleep 34 people at the chateau and we are hiring it for a week.

We are having week long celebrations for the same cost as the average UK wedding which only lasts the day.

Brittany is absolutely beautiful,
Ill link some venues for you to see

http://www.grandval.nu/english/default.htm

http://www.chateauval.com/receptions/

http://www.manoir-kercadio.com/

http://www.manoirdelanoeverte.fr/fr/index_fr.htm

http://www.moulindekergoff.fr/en/home.html

xxx

dingdongavoncalling

ladypike wrote: »

Im getting married in France (well civil ceremony here....sssshhhh dont tell anyone) and a service in France (which to all our friends and family that will be 'the real ceremony'.)

We are getting married at a chateau 40 minutes from st Malo. Its easy for all our friends and family to come accross and join us, they can either come via ferry or eurotunnel.

You can sleep 34 people at the chateau and we are hiring it for a week.

We are having week long celebrations for the same cost as the average UK wedding which only lasts the day.

Brittany is absolutely beautiful,
Ill link some venues for you to see

http://www.grandval.nu/english/default.htm

http://www.chateauval.com/receptions/

http://www.manoir-kercadio.com/

http://www.manoirdelanoeverte.fr/fr/index_fr.htm

http://www.moulindekergoff.fr/en/home.html

xxx

I'm really interested in this, and like the fact that people wouldn't have to fly. Are you hiring the chateau out for all your guests? Is it self catering? Is there staff at the chateau? Sorry for all the questions! Off to read your links now!...

angelil

I got married in France last year, but I've lived here since 2008. Frankly it's difficult enough with all the paperwork etc even when you do live here The other posters are correct - you need to have lived in France for at least 40 days before the marriage, and the marriage is only legal if conducted in a registry office. You would also have to be married in French; I don't think you'd find anybody who would do the ceremony in English for you. Any other ceremonies (e.g. religious) are not at all legally binding and you have to have had the legal ceremony done elsewhere first for it to 'mean' anything in the eyes of the law. So you could potentially "get married"/have a blessing in a church or chateau or something, but you'd still need to actually get married elsewhere.