Italy marriage paperwork

We looked into this a few years ago and I believe you had to get a document from your local registry office that said you are legally free to marry. You then had to get that and your birth certificates translated to Italian and verified by the UK government before sending to the Italian registry office. You also had to get a document from the Italian registry office about 3/4 days before your wedding so you need to be in the country earlier than you might think. Finally the ceremony needed to be in Italian so if you are not fluent, then you will need to pay for an interpreter (a wedding venue will tend to provide someone if you add it to the price).

We settled on a UK wedding in the end but if we had stuck with Italy then it would have been symbolic only. It just felt like too much admin to have a legal wedding in Italy so we would have done the legal bit in the UK first. There is also the additional cost because you will have to pay for the documents to be translated, verified and posted, and the cost of staying in Italy longer than you might have planned.

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Thankyou for your message!

Registrar here, you need a Certificate of No Impediment which is a document stating you are free to marry. You need to give notice of marriage at your local register office and then collect the certificate 28 days later. Most countries impose a 3 or 6 month validity period on the certificate, and many want a translation and apostille stamp plus other documents. Apostilles take a few months and it can take a few months to get an appointment at your local register office to give notice. In short, doing the legal side abroad means a lot of paperwork and it's difficult to get the timing right. All the documents need to be physically picked up and taken to where they need to go by a certain date, which makes things harder. Having the ceremony and certificate in a language you can't speak can make errors more likely which are hard to correct once you're back in the UK. Once you're married, you need to get your marriage certificate translated to use it to update your name or marital status. Having a simple £57 register office ceremony with 2 witnesses in the UK, followed by a commemorative ceremony abroad has its benefits. I hope this doesn't put you off if it's what you truly want, but hope it helps you make an informed decision!

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Thank you for your message, we have decided to marry in the UK beforehand then travel to Italy for a symbolic ceremony. This will make me feel less stressed especially when it would be cutting it close to the day of your wedding and added preasure!