Ecstatic

I am an Irish citizen, as is my fiancee and we are planning to get married in Sevilla in 2007. Does anyone know anything about getting married in Spain/Sevilla?! We are looking for a brilliant restaurant, a terrific Irish band/Spanish guitar player/flamenco dancer and venue for reception. Give me inspiration!

Robert2533

You should check with the local Spanish Consul, but I believe that there is a residency and/or citizenship requirement in Spain.

Christina

I think it is best to get married in the country where you are a citizen as marriage is really a legal contract recognized by your country and state of residence, and it's a lot easier. I know you are allowed to get married in Spain with appropriate paperwork including various consular certificates, though. I think one person at least has to have been residing there three weeks.

It sounds like you are Catholic since you mentioned the cathedral, and that's a whole other issue, as you know the church has its own requirements, as will the archbishopric where you intend to marry, so you'd have to check with them. I would imagine the Catholic church in Spain might be fairly conservative in its requirements, but I don't know for sure. I know many Catholic churches require you to attend some pre-marital classes and have bans posted in the church way ahead of time. I guess you would know about that if you are Catholic, though.

Ecstatic

Thanks, we did find out that we will have to do the civil and church bit separately - but that doesn't bother us. We want the spiritual experience of being married at the Cathedral.
Happy travelling.

Eloise

I think what Christina is trying to tell you is that it is not up to you whether you get married in the Cathedral in Seville, but rather up to the archbishop of Seville.

If you can get your parish priest to intercede for you (which I rather doubt, since you seem to regard the whole thing as more of an escapade than a serious undertaking), have him write a letter for you, have it translated into Spanish, the translation certified by the Spanish consulate or embassy, send it off to the archbishop of Seville, and wait to see what he has to say...

nytraveler

My understanding is that getting married in any cathedral - versus your parish church - is a fairly big deal to arrange - even in your own country. Often a matter of who you know in the church hierarchy (a cousin of mine had her heart set on getting married here in St. Pats - even a side chapel) and it took a whole lot of string pulling and cousin calling to find someone who knew someone who could get her permission.

(They needed all sorts of letters from her local priest, and the monseignor - to testify that all the requirements would be met before they could even apply.)

It ended up being a beautiful ceremony - but when her younger sister wanted the same thing her mother said no more - her influential relative had passed on anyway - and the groom's mother didn;'t have the contacts to pull it off.