On our trip to Italy this coming May, my boyfriend and I have discussed getting married while abroad. Neither one of us wants a big wedding, and we're thinking it would be romantic and memorable to elope while on our vacation.

I've looked a few websites when googling "weddings in Italy" but everything seems geared towards people doing the whole wedding thing, and not a simple civil ceremony, which is what we're looking for.

Any suggestions?

My husband and I recently renewed our vows for our ten year anniversary on a gondola in Venice. It was a truly intimate and memorable occassion. I know your dilemma since I also had a hard time finding someone who didn't insist on big package deals, but rather something more intimate for just the two of us.

If you want the contact for the consultant we used, email me at [email protected]. I can't say enough wonderful things about her and her services.

Good luck in your search.

My husband and I went with a tour group to Italy. One of the couples from Australia had a civil wedding service done in Florence. They started by contacting the Italian embassy to find out everything that would be required for this long before they left Australia. The tour allowed arrival into Rome 2 days prior to the start of the tour so they used those 2 days to arrange an appointment for the wedding.(They took the train to Florence and went to city hall.)
Our tour lasted 14 days with Florence being one of the last stops. While the rest of the group was enjoying a walking tour of Florence they were getting married. As it happened our walking tour ended at city hall so we stayed there to congratulate the couple.
They also had invited her sister and his best friend on the tour and did not tell them until the night before that they were going to be participating as best man and maid of honor.
Contact me if you have problems and I could email the Australian couple for more information.

ksosnow,

Are you from the US? The US Department of State has information on marriages abroad and what paperwork is involved. I was married in Italy in a simple civil ceremony some years ago, and we made all the arrangements ourselves, including the paperwork. I believe the system remains the same.

--In the US, apply for a document from the Italian Consulate. This required going to the consulate with four friends who could attest to your identities and that you were not marrying illegally or leaving children behind. Sorry, I can't recall the name of the document.

--In the US, we were told we would need official translations of our birth certificates, so we got them but no one ever asked to see them. In Italy, they referred to our passports.

--In Italy, take your documents to an American Consulate for document issued by the US government there. (In the US, we were told we would need two witnesses there--we showed up with our witnesses and the clerks were puzzled why we had brought them.)

The signature of the US Consul on this document must then be notarized by the Italian authorities. (Timing this with strange opening and closing times can be tricky. We ended up getting the document in Milan and waiting to get the notarization at the Prefettura in Venice, a few days before we married.)

--Take all these documents to the marriage bureau in the city where you will marry. We went there two days ahead of our wedding day, just to be sure. Now you can get married! You need two witnesses. No need to worry about "posting the banns" since you are foreign and not likely to generate many protests to your marriage.

We had called ahead a few months to schedule an actual wedding date and time--we had guests coming. Our civil ceremony took place in Venice's city hall in the city council chamber, an impressive room with wood paneling, chadeliers, and windows looking over the Grand Canal.

I assume those wedding planners help out with obtaining the Italian paperwork.

Congratulations and auguri!

A friend of mine went through one of the online weddign consultants for a simple 2 person civil ceremony and it worked beautifully They helped her coordinate translating documents and meeting with the italian embassy and all that. I think it was italyweddings.com or something that simple. They were married at the courthouse in Positano and it looked gorgeous from the photos I saw. Good luck!

Thanks so much for all the helpful information. It's exciting to think about and doesn't sound too terribly difficult. At least, it would definitely be worth the extra paperwork.

Hi Ksosnow,

My husband and I were married in Venice in a simple civil ceremony. It was very very romantic and I highly recommend it!

The company we used is called Rosanna Tours. Although her company offers big package weddings (and other types of tours), we only had our parents and my brother attending as guests. I know other couples have done the same thing with just the two of them. Rosanna Tours has a variety of different types of packages you can customize, and that is what I liked about her company. For example, most companies require that you book a reception, hotel room, etc. through them. But, we only wanted the wedding and no reception since we weren't going to have a lot of people. We were able to do that through Rosanna Tours.

Fyi, if you want to get married in Italy and you *don't* want a religious ceremony, you have to get married in a town hall. In other words, you can't get married in a castle, on a cliff, etc. unless it is a religious ceremony. We wanted a civil ceremony so we were stuck with doing it in a town hall. Fortunately, that turned out to be no problem because the Venice town hall is fabulous Palazzo Cavalli on the Grand Canal!

Also, I would suggest you get started planning soon. You have to go to the Italian consulate in the U.S. and take an oath with witnesses present before you leave for Italy. So, it would be good to get the ball rolling. Rosanna Tours set this all up for us, so we didn?t really have to know anything about the requirements.

If you have any other questions, feel free to email me directly at [email protected].

Congratulations!

Daria

We used Weddings Italy for our wedding in Venice. weddingsitaly.com. we were very surprised by how smoothly everything went - we had 70 people attend and it all went off without a hitch!

I mention this because we had a civil ceremony at the Palazzo Cavalli - we had about 60 people but it would be even MORE romantic if it were just the two of you - good luck!

I'm putting this to the top again because I would like to know from those who answered how much they paid for their civil ceremonies. I contacted a wedding planner and asked for a quote for just a simple ceremony for just the two of us, and it was around $1500 Euros! Is this normal? Can we do it ourselves and spare some of the expense?

Any insight would be helpful, thanks!

Dear K,

Has it occurred to you that you could be married in the US with far less fuss and bother and just tell everyone that you were married while you were in Italy?

Ira, we women in general,are very Romantics and to be married in a beautiful settings in Italy is like a Dream come true...

That price sounds in line to me, ksosnow. Actually if you have to do legalities, that is a pretty good price, IMHO.

When we did it all ourselves, the only fees were for the documents noted in our earlier posts. This was 1989, so I suppose prices may have risen. At that time we spent no more than $200 total for all the documents, including Italian translations of oour birth certificates.

When we did it all ourselves, the only fees were for the documents noted in my earlier post. At that time we spent no more than $200 total for all the documents, including Italian translations of oour birth certificates. This was 1989, so I suppose prices may have risen, but the price you quote seems extreme for a do-it-yourself wedding.

Now that I think about it, ksosnow, what all is included in that price?

It really depends on what the consultant is including (officator, photographer, flowers, etc), as to what the price would be. Most small wedding packages I priced in early 2003 were a bit more than 1500 euros, but we found a better deal with the constulant we went with.

When we did it in 2000 I believe it was $3,000. That included all paperwork/filing fees in the U.S. and Italy, the civil ceremony, a photographer, a gondola to pick us up and deliver us to the Palazzo Cavalli, harp music at the ceremony, flowers and a coordinator to help us with all of this. I thought it was an excellent deal.

Thanks, everyone, for your answers. That gives me a better idea of costs and a clearer sense of the reality of what is involved. Another hitch in this is that the nearest Italian Consulate in the US to us is in San Francisco. I think if we are going to spend around $3000, we are going to have a wedding in Seattle that our friends and family can join in on. A wedding in Italy seemed sooooo romantic, though, and we were hoping to easily elope there.

C'est la vie!