Vow renewal in Paris?
 

Does anyone have any information on locations available for vow renewals? My fiance and I are planning to elope before heading to Paris in hopes that we can do a small ceremony in Paris. Money is unfortuantely an issue. Thank You

Do you want this to be religious (and if so, which religion) or non-religious?

The ceremony does not have to be religious. We really do not have a preference we are just set on saying vows to each other in Paris. Thank You!

I think I don't understand what you are asking. If you don't need any legal or religious involvement, then you and your husband could renew your vows at a spot you consider appropriate, just by saying them to each other. Are you planning to have a reception or something in Paris?

Do you know what my options would be for a religious ceremony?

I don't know personally, but if you say what religion maybe someone else would know.

As long as it's not an actual marriage ceremony (extremely difficult to arrange in France unless you're a citizen of the country) you should be able to arrange for a blessing. I'd suggest posting your question over on the bonjourparis.com site, where there are several people who are knowledgeable about making such arrangements.

well obviously is isn't a marriage because they will already be married. I think most people renew vows after some time period, not just a few days, and the wedding ceremonies that people have in Paris (that aren't legit or real weddings) are mainly to invite a lot of people. Otherwise, there really isn't any point to it as you can't renew vows in any civil way in France and if it isn't religious, it would just be == I don't know what. However, there are indeed companies that do this and they have some rather spectacular venues listed on their web sites (I could have sworn I saw Sainte Chapelle on one of them), but if money is an issue, that might rule that out, because they are not cheap, of course (you don't get things like that cheap).

I don't think there is a real cheap non-civil, non-religious way to do that except just do-it-yourself, as Willtravel suggests.

www.weddingsabroad.com does this in Paris and has many nice places listed as possible venues (including Sainte Chapelle, some chateaus, the Jacquemart-Andre Museum, etc). They probably aren't cheap, but you can check them out as I think they have what you want (they call it a "symbolic" ceremony).

Thank you all for your help!

If you want to do it in a church, you should be Catholic, and need to talk to the person responsible - at the Presbytere, or whatever. I tried to arrange this for someone in Sarlat, and discovered that it is unknown in this part of the world. The abbe (priest) would have been prepared to discuss it, but we ran into too many language problems - I as the translator came down with bronchitis, and since one party couldn't speak French, the other English, it didn't happen.

I assume this would be a very low cost alternative.

Check out the American Church in Paris web site -- friends (because of the 30-day residency requirement to have a legally binding French ceremony) had a civil/courthouse ceremony in Washington DC (their home), followed very shortly thereafter by a wedding at ACP. Their minister came from the US to perform the ceremony, and "by the powers vested in him by the District of Columbia" declared them (again) married. Dinner at lovely Parisian restaurant followed. Possible snag, since $ is an issue -- I think I saw in another European wedding thread that ACP requests a "donation" to the church for the use of the premises. Want to say it was $1000??

The original question on this thread was posted in 2004.

Not sure how it popped up in the current list, which is where I saw it. Thanks for the head up.