Hello all,
I Plan on getting married on a Tuscany Villa July 7th. My question is, I know, I am a little late in the game, does anyone know if I can hire a priest or a civil service migistrate to come up to our propery to perform the ceremony? Or, do I HAVE to get married in a town hall? We will be an extremly small group, about 6-8 people. We'll be arriving in Florence on Monday, the 4th. Does that give us enough time to get all the legal documents in order?

Any info. would be greatly appreciated.

Billy

Hi Billy, I do not think you will be able to get a Catholic Priest to come to a Villa to marry you. Catholic marriages take place in a Catholic church. I had a friend who got married in Italy by a civil service magistrate. But they went to the City Hall. I think that you need to do some quick and serious research on this. If you get married at the City Hall then you could have your reception at the Villa. But seriously, you need to find out what is required for you to be married in Italy. ASAP. July 7th will be arriving before you know it. Best wishes to you.

OK Billy, here is the website that will give you the exact legal requirements to get married in Italy.

The website is: http//www.italyemb.org/marriage.htm.

As soon as you see this post of mine go to the website and read it immediately. It will give you all the legal requirements. There is a lot of paperwork, so again, do this ASAP. Blessings to both of you. And do let us know how your wedding and time in Italy was. Best wishes.

I also agree that it is unlikely you could get anyone to officate at a ceremony at the villa. However, you may be able to get a priest to give a blessing at the villa after you are married (think Camilla and Charles, quite a nice ceremony I thought). Try finding links to English-speaking Cathlic churces in Florence, as I assume you want an English speaking priest (esp as the actual marriage ceremony will be in Italian).

If you have not already done so, you should take a look ASAP at the website for the US Embassy in Rome, there is a section on US citizens getting married in Italy. The website is http://www.usembassy.it/ and the specific page you want is http://www.usembassy.it/cons/acs/marriage.htm. Quite a bit of documentation in Itlaian is necessary to get married in Italy. To the extent you can, you should obtain as many docs as you can now, as you will only have 3 days when you arrive into Italy. Make sure that July 4, 5 or 6 are not public holidays in Italy, as government offices are closed on public holidays.

You might also take a look at the Italian Embassy in the US at http://www.italyemb.org/, although I find their website hard to use and not really that informative.

Hi Cicerone, actually the Italian Embassy website does take a few minutes to figure out but if you go to the A to Z line and click that on and scroll down you can find tons of information. That is how I got the website info for Billy.

And Billy, Cicerone has a good point, do keep in mind about any holidays. I do not know of any on July 7th but if it is a Saints Day or something Cicerone is correct, the City Hall could be closed. Anyway, get moving on this right away.

LoveItaly and Cicerone,
Thanks so much for your valuable input. We really appreciate it. Yes, we have to get moving on this. If it becomes too burdensome, we may decide to have a quick ceremony in the states and enjoy our honeymoon in Italy. Will let know how things turn out.

Thanks again

Billy

>we may decide to have a quick ceremony in the states and enjoy our honeymoon in Italy. <

A very good idea, Billy.

Hi Billy, you are more then welcome!
Billy, with the short amount of time you two have, and knowing the beauracracy in Italy you might find that getting married in the US and then going to Italy for your honeymoon would be so less stressful. Being a romantic at heart I sure understand and appreciate your wanting to get married in Italy but in this case I am not sure I would attempt it. But check out the website and see if you can figure out if it is workable or not.

And my very best wishes the two of you.

And yes, please do let us know how things turn out. That would be nice. Take good care.

Hi Billy,
We are getting married in a Villa this June. The red tape is daunting, and I doubt you would have time to get it all in order. We decided skip all that, and got married legally in the US last month (only the two of us and the pastor), then we are having a ceremonial wedding on the grounds of the villa with about 25 guests attending. A friend will be "officiating". If you want more details, I would recommend going over to theknot.com and checking out the Destination Weddings chat page. There are several very helpful people getting married in Italy that frequent there!

To affirm what others have said...

We got married in Florence 5 years ago. I personally wouldn't even attempt it without hiring a local coordinator who provides a translator on-site, and still not in the timeframe you're proposing, even with a coordinator. Just to give you an idea...we never ONCE saw a computer or even a fax machine at all the different governmental offices we had to go to...everything was typewriters, carbon paper, and rubber stamps. Not exactly a fast moving system. I think adding in the fact that you're marrying outside a major city will add even more work to your process. (Another intersting factoid...there were several things that got signed by my husband and our witness...NOT me the wife!)

Let me know if you're interested in a referral for a coordinator. We were very pleased with the one we used (all by email).