Howdy,
I'm wondering if anyone has gotten married in Italy in a City Hall Civil Ceremony. What is the ceremony like? How long is it? What's the process?

We are getting married at Siena City Hall in June and would love a little insight. Thanks!

Would assume that whoever is planning the wedding for you could provide details.

I wouldn;t try to do this yourself given the complications involved - getting all appropriate birth, baptismal, marriage/divorce, citizenship etc documents gathred, translated into Italian, notarized and approved in advance of the wedding is a major effort. And I would think you would have to be in Italy at least a couple of weeks beforehand to get it all organized.

Have you spoken to an official at your local Italian embassy or consulate on the requirements involved?

Are you from the US? If so, your marriage won't be legal here. My son is in a wedding in Italy and the couple is actually getting married here before having the "big" wedding there. Good luck with your plans.

travelfan1,

In terms of legality, is there a distinction to be made between a civil ceremony officiated by the mayor of the town or his designee and a church ceremony? I can't imagine for example that a civil ceremony in France would not be recognized as a legal marriage in the States.

Hi tcfwine,

I am getting married this May in Siena city hall too. We hired a wedding planner and since we are both US citizens, have some paperwork to do beforehand and when we get there(in Florence - US embassy). But our wedding planner is taking care of everything and has not been an issue at all. Trying to coordinate my ever expanding guest list is another story...

Good luck & congratulations,
Sudhin

Hi tcfwine,

I am getting married this May in Siena city hall too. We hired a wedding planner and since we are both US citizens, have some paperwork to do beforehand and when we get there(in Florence - US embassy). But our wedding planner is taking care of everything and has not been an issue at all. Trying to coordinate my ever expanding guest list is another story...

Also, we've been told that the ceremony is about 20-30 minutes but we can personalise a bit..

Good luck & congratulations,
Sudhin

travelfan1---I believe you are incorrect. If a marriage is a legal one where it is performed, it is legal in the US. Your son's friend may choose to have their "legal" marriage in the US for various reasons, and then have a ceremonial wedding in Italy for a big celebration. That may be easier than getting all the paperwork in order for a legal wedding in Italy. But, if one does get all the paperwork in place so the Italian wedding is recognized as a legal wedding there, it is a legal marriage in the U.S. too.

That applies to a civil ceremony in France as well.

This is all very interesting...I know my son told me they were getting married here first because it wouldn't be legal....originally this was not part of their plan. I do know they made 2 trips already just to plan everything. My curiosity is piqued....will have to have son ask his friends exactly why they're having the wedding here first!

You named it...there's a lot of paperwork involved. Without it , a wedding between two people of a foreign nationality is not valid anywhere. You have to have the permits made in your own country. Some famous people here in Spain when to get married at London and they did it at the Spanish Consulate because the paperwork it's very much easier Maybe you should ask for a US consulate to get married

travelfan1---it may just be easier that way, rather than, as nytraveler mentioned, getting all the appropriate documents together and translated, etc.

The meaningful wedding will be the one in Italy, whether it is the "legal" one or not. I have friends who have done it the same way as your son's friends are doing---a civil ceremony in the US, followed by a religious ceremony and full-on banquet at a lovely villa in Italy. They will celebrate that date on their anniversary.

I only chimed in because I didn't want anyone to think that a legal marriage in Italy won't be recognized in the U.S.

DD will be "married" in Italy this summer. They plan a civil ceremony in the US and a symbolic ceremony in Italy. For a legal marriage in Ialy, even having paperwork done in advance, she was told that they would need to be in Italy 5 days prior to the cremony.
They are using a wedding planner.

I believe TomKat had a civil wedding in S CA before their "big production" wedding in Italy.

Tcfwine, when you say you are getting married at the City Hall in Siena having your checked out all the Italian legal requirements to have a marriage performed there?

Phew.....

We're taking care of all the paperwork. It's a hassle, but it will be a legal marriage.

I was more curious as to the actual ceremony. What happens? What's the process? Is there music? Do we walk down an aisle? That sort of thing...

Hi,
My brother got married in a civil ceremony in Italy. There was an aisle (of sorts) and they brought along a CD of music that was played when the bride came in and when they both left. Apart from that, the ceremony itself was fairly "dry", as most of it was taken up by the mayor reading out various official acts and legal articles.

Will you have an interpreter?

I attended a civil wedding in Venice (it was GLORIOUS).

My friend had a wedding planner who advised her on italian tradition.

The bride walked through the streets of Venice, accompanied by her friends (I guess this would normally be bridesmaids and maid of honour, but she didn't have any).

The groom then met her on the steps of City Hall and presented her with her bouquet.

We girls all dashed up to the room to join the rest of the guests, and the bride and groom walked into the room together up a central aisle divided by seating on either side.

I 'think' I remember there being music, - I have a vague recollection of a violinist, but I suspect this was arranged by the wedding planner, so you might need to do this yourself.

Present were the registrar, and assistant, and the wedding planner acting as a translator (I think this is a legal requirement).

Registrar read out the vows as you'd expect at any wedding (beautiful vows actually). The couple, regiastrar, translator, assistant and two witnesses then went into an ornate office just behind the 'altar' (well, desk) to sign all the paperwork.

The registar then gave the couple a gift of a Venetian glass bowl as a present from the citizens of Venice (sweet!).

That was it. Didn't take long. Maybe 45 minutes?

Read all about it on this old thread
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34563329

Just thought I would also chime in here...we had our wedding blessing/big church wedding in Italy. However, we were legally wed in the US....the paperwork in Italy was going to be a time consuming hassle, while it was very simple to do in the US at our town hall.

My wedding in Italy was in 1989, but I think the paperwork still works the same way. We got information from the US State Department on the documents necessary. The State Departement representattive also told us that if we followed the legal requirements of Italy, we would be considered legally married in the US. We also had friends in Italy who verified the information for us. We did not hire a wedding planner.

Document 1) We had to get a document here in the United States from the Italian consulate. I forget its name, but basically it states that the two parties are allowed to marry, that they are not married to anyone else, that they are not leaving children behind. You must bring 4 friends with you as witnesses to this document. (Since I live in NYC there was a consulate close at hand. Even Italians who marry in Italy must get this document.)

Document 2) We obtained Italian translations of our birth certificates. We were told we would need these though I'm not sure that anyone ever really did use them.

Document 3) Four days before our wedding date, we took these documents to a US consulate in Italy. We chose Milan since we planned to wed in Venice, so Milan was the closest. (In the US, we had been told we would need two witnesses at the consulate, so we had two friends, Italian nationals, come along--and it ended up their presence was unnecessary. Fortunately, since they are Italian they understood the system of misinformation.)

The US consulate generated a form (sorry, again the name escapes me) that then had to be notarized by the Italian Prefettura. We'd heard horror stories about trying to align opening and closing times--Apply for form at US consulate in morning, return for form in afternoon; oh joy, now Prefettura is closed for the day and we must wait till the next day. We'd also heard horror stories about chasing down the correct marcobolli, offical stamps needed for the documents. Happily, we were told that the notarization could take place in Venice, so we didn't have an unplanned overnight in Milan. And the Venice Prefettura had the correct marcobolli, so no chasing to tabacchi for stamps.

Document 4) We went to Venice two days ahead, got our notarization at the prefettura, and then took all the documents to the marriage bureau for a marriage license. Since we were foreigners, there was no need to post banns, no required residency period.

Two days later we were married in the town hall by an official magistrate (in ceremonial sash), in the lovely woddpanled City Council room overlooking the Grand Canal, with frineds and family in attendance. (I had called the Venice marriage bureau 4 months earlier to reserve our wedding time. We had guests coming from the US and wanted to give them a definite day and time.)

For the actual ceremony, we did not need to hire a translator, because the woman (Sra Fuccillo) then at the marriage bureau spoke English. The magistrate said his part in Italian, and then Sra Fuccillo would read the English translation of the same section. Most of my guests couldn't understand her heavily accented English, but I had no problem. We had two witnesses (friends) who stood with us before the council table as a list of legal sounding agreements were read aloud. We had never heard them before, but I recall that they were very contractual, yet not very specific--"And the two parties have come to an agreement about how they will live their lives together, . . . how they will raise children . . ." No specifics, just the idea that we agree with one another on many points. Once or twice we had to say "yes" to some question. Finally, we four had to sign a very large marriage license that included translations in a number of languages. The whole ceremony took perhaps 20 minutes.

I've also attended a civil wedding ceremony of friends in Torino, and it was similar if not identical.

frinWe ran into two other American couples getting married during the same few days. One couple had tried to get married in Florence, but were told they didn't have the correct papers, so they called around and ended up in Venice, where there was no problem.

This may sound involved, but it was a lot less involved than planning a large wedding in the US.

Congratulations, best wishes, and auguri!

Excellent information, ellenem.

Wonderful info, folks! Thanks!

I am in the process of geetting married in Venice on April 4th. The paperwork inst too bad.
First, you need to get certified copies of your birth certificates and if applicable, a divorce decree. Then get an Apostille for each document from the Secratary of State.
At the same time, these documents must be translated. We contacted a good sized university and found someone much cheaper than what we were being quoted in the marketplace.
This is where we are at now. next we go to the Italian Consulate with two witnesses, and they give us an Atto Notorio stating there are no obstacles for our wedding in Italy.
Next we go to Venice, where there is now a US Consulate office at the airport. We sign the docs and then the next day is the wedding! It should last about 30 minutes. You can add flowers, harpist, etc to jazz it up. The ceremony will be in Italian but we will have a translator.
Tante cose!