wedding abroad
 

My fiance and I would like to get married in Barcelona. Does anyone know of a tour operator who specializes in weddings in Spain? <BR> <BR>Gracias, <BR>Kim

Hello Kim-

Was wondering if you and your fiance got married in Barcelona? My fiance and I are in the midst of doing research on destination weddings and Barcelona is at the top of our list. Was hoping to learn about Barcelona weddings from someone who's done it.

Thank you!
Shauna Shaik
Chicago, IL
[email protected]

Sounds romantic, but it may prove impossible. You should check Spanish law (contact the Spanish Embassy) regarding non-residents getting married in Spain. This is not Las Vegas or Mexico, and as far as I understand, you will find it extremely difficult to obtain a marriage certificate if at least one of the parties isn't a Spanish citizen.

I may be wrong, but I don't believe there is anything resembling a simple civil ceremony performed in Spain. Everything is arranged through the church.

Hello! Shauna, you might try visiting the Knot.com message boards. They have an entire forum devoted to Destination Weddings, so there may be a bride there who will know something about the rules in Spain. If Spain doesn't work out, there are many European countries (such as Italy) where you can get married as a non-citizen.

Visit www.theknot.com/talk. You can browse the boards without a screen name, but you need to sign up for an account if you want to post. However, I will submit that as Fodors=travel, The Knot=wedding planning! :) There are a million ideas you can get from other people there (myself being one of them- getting married May 29, 2005!)

Good luck, and congratulations on your wedding! :)

Take a look at the information put together by the US State Department at http://travel.state.gov/law/spain_marriage.html.

It does sound a bit more complicated than getting married in Italy (which is complicated enough, by the way.) According to the website, Spanish law appears to permit foreigners who are not Spanish citizens or residents to marry in Spain. However, the different autonomous communities in Spain, however, interpret this law differently. Outside Madrid, it may be required that one party be a citizen or resident of Spain. For this reason, the US Embassy in Spain suggests an American consult beforehand with the regional authorities of the area where the person wants to marry.

The website for the US Embassy in Madrid is http://madrid.usembassy.gov/. The website for the US Consulate in Barcelona is http://barcelona.usconsulate.gov/..

Assuming you can get all the paperwork cleared, I think this is a nice idea. I also assume you speak or understand Spanish, as your vows will be in that language! (as will your marriage certificate, and it would probably be a good idea to have a sworn translation prepared in English either in Spain or as soon as you return.)

If it's any help my neighbours daughter is getting married in Cyprus next year. The following link gives some info.

http://www.cyprus.gb.com/weddings-cyprus.htm

I dont have much else to add here but, I agree with everyone. I was going to be married in Germany, but it was so expensive and you MUST know some German. I imagine that you would have to have your papers translated, and Spain is very strict when it comes to these things. I lived there for 2 years and my paper work was in a folder about 2 inches thick! So, be ready to pay the price and do the research.

My friends (both US citizens) were married in Spain. It was indeed a trying experience to plan the wedding, and they were really only able to do it because the groom is fluent in Spanish. Of course, there were still problems, as there are differences between Central and South American Spanish and Spain Spanish.

They discovered near the wedding date that to make it all legal, the best way was to have a civil ceremony in New Yor before going to Spain for the full-flung wedding. And this was the case even though the groom's father was originally from Spain.

Hello everyone!
Thank you all for your replies to my question about having a destination wedding in Spain. It is in fact very difficult and you also have to be residing in Spain for 3 weeks. Probably won't work for us. I did register on &quot;theknot.com&quot;. Very cool site.
Thanks again!
Shauna