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After 25 years together, I am considering saying "yes" to the man I love. (In fact, by now, we are known to the grand-kids as Nan & Papa.) We are traveling to Venice 12/2 - 12/12/09 and I'm thinking this would be a good time to 'tie the knot'. Any suggestions? There will be no family, friends or invitations. Just very simple, heartfelt and in romantic Venice. Any ideas about best place, time, cost, legal requirements? I would appreciate any help.
Thanks, suenanm
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Weddings in Venice
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Congratulations! Here is thread about a wedding in Venice. There was another wonderful one by statia with pictures of them in a gondola. I'll see if I can find it.
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/how-to-plan-a-wedding-extravaganza-in-venice-in-1-month-step-1-find-a-groom.cfm
This is Statia's. It was a vow renewal and is a great read IMHO.
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/statias-florence-venice-italy-trip-report.cfm
I got married in Venice 20 years ago. An official wedding ceremony takes place in city hall, Ca' Farsetti, in the city council room. I made the arrangemenst all on my own. Are you from the US? I have found that for most people the biggest difficulty is back home, not in Italy.
The first thing you need to do before anything else is go to an Italian Consulate in the US, bringing four friends with you who have known you for some time and can sign documents to the fact that you are who you say you are and are not married to someone else or leaving behind children and responsibilities from another marriage. If you don't live near a Italian Consulate in the US, this is often the most difficult piece of paperwork for people to arrange.
We also followed instructions to get Italian translations of our birth certificates, which we did, but no one ever used for any stage of the preparations. (Others have said they did need these at some point in Italy.)
In Italy you must file more paperwork with a US Consulate there, get it certified at the city's Prefettura, and then take all those documents to the town hall of the city where you want to marry and apply for a license. Back in the US, we were told we would need two witnesses for this part, but when we brought our witnesses to the consulate, we were told their presence was unnecessary.
We wanted to marry in Venice at city hall. This was pre-internet days, so an Italian friend of mine researched the phone number of the office in Venice that did marriage ceremonies. He spoke with the woman in charge (Sra Fuccillo) who actually spoke English, so I contacted her a few months in advance to reserve a time for the wedding. She told us to show up two days before with all our paperwork, and then she would prepare the license.
And so, we did our US paperwork about a month before the wedding. We lived in NYC, so this was easily accomplished. We arrived in Milan and went to the US Consulate in Milan the next day to file the paperwork. Another difficulty can be opening and closing times. We filed our papers in the morning, but had to return after lunch to receive the final documents. By the time we received them, the Prefettura in MIlan where they could be notarized by the proper authorities was closed for the day. Fortunately, we were told that the Prefettura in Venice could do the authorization as well. The next day we went to Venice. The next day after that, we filed our papers at city hall with Sra Fuccillo, and paid all the fees.
Two days later, a local magistrate performed the ceremony in Italian, with Sra Fucillo reading an English translation. The ceremony took place in the city council chamber in a room overlooking the Grand Canal.
The paperwork and arrangements can be done on your own, but if you do a search here you will find a number of recommendations for wedding planners that might make the process easier. Triple check the latest information and requirements, since every step of the way you may deal with people who tell you something different. We found the US State Dept to offer the most clear and accurate description of the requirements at the time.
Really truly the most difficult part for most Americans is obtaining the documents you need from the Italian Consulate in the US.
Legal requirements, and paperwork needed, can be a nightmare for a wedding in Italy, so I strongly suggest you employ the service of a wedding co-ordinator/planner based in Italy to steer you through the Italian red tape. I think 6 months isn't too long to get everything done and dusted, so contact one straightaway. Even though it will cost you - to the tune of 500-600 euro for the arrangement alone, don't try to do it yourself, unless you have fluent Italian, familiarity with Italian red tape and can afford at least one pre-wedding trip to organise things on the ground. You can be married by the mayor or one of his deputies in the splendid 17th century Palazzo Cavalli overlooking the Grand Canal.
http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/EN/IDPagina/954