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Getting married in Italy
Italy has long been deemed one of the most romantic countries in the world and so 
what better place to get married! Italy is full of beautiful ancient architecture, and is heralded as a cultural capital of the world with its wealth of history and art.
A marriage performed in Italy is legally recognised worldwide, and unlike some other European countries, including France and Portugal , where there is a 30 - 40 day residency requirement, there are no residency requirements to marry in Italy . However, there are still some important legal issues that will need to be addressed.
The legalities
It is important that you seek legal advice prior to embarking on organising a wedding in Italy .
Whilst there is no official residency period prior to the ceremony, you will need to have enough time to complete all the necessary paperwork involved, and the time that this takes seems to depend on your personal circumstances. Some of this paperwork can be completed prior to your arrival in the country.
Some paperwork you will need
You will need to provide a 'Certificate of No Impediment' which you can obtain from your local Register Office, as well as certified photocopies of the first five pages of both your passports along with your original birth certificates. If you are adopted then you will need to provide a copy of your adoption certificate, and similarly if you have changed your name by deed poll, you will need to provide evidence of this too. If you are applying from within the country, then you will need to produce the originals.
It is possible to have a religious ceremony; however, you will normally be required to have had a civil ceremony first of all, unless it is a Roman Catholic ceremony which is recognised in by the Italian Authorities as a legally binding ceremony.
It may also be possible for you to marry in a Roman Catholic religious ceremony if either of you are not Roman Catholic providing you are able to provide a Dispensation from your local parish priest prior to the ceremony.
If you are going to be arranging your civil ceremony yourself rather than going through a specialist wedding planning service, you may want to take a look at the advice the British Embassy in Italy has to offer.
It is a legal requirement that you have an interpreter throughout your ceremony. This interpreter must be a legally recognised one by the Italian authorities.
If you are re-marrying
Peculiarly, a divorced woman may not re-marry in Italy unless 300 days have passed since the date sited on the final decree absolute, however, there is no time restriction for divorced men!
If you are re-marrying after either divorce or having been widowed, you will need to provide such as the original death certificate or divorce decree and you need to have these documents translated into Italian.
The most popular Italian wedding destinations according to http://www.italian-weddings.com/ are:
- Rome
- Florence
- Almafi Coast
- Venice
You may find it less stressful and less time consuming to go to a specialist wedding planner who specialises in arranging weddings in Italy . Having looked at a number of these websites there seems to be a variation in the amount of flexibility there is on where you can marry in Italy with some of them saying that they are 'sometimes' able to arrange for civil ceremonies to take place in places other than a Register Office. However, it is worth remembering that these official buildings tend to be of great historical interest and are therefore very beautiful and not at all like some that you find here in the UK !
If you are going to get married in Italy , it is worth bearing in mind the weather. The most popular times of year to marry there are May, June and September. July and August are often too hot with the average temperature at 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and the winter months can be a little hit and miss rain wise, though of course it very much depends where abouts in Italy you intend to marry.
For more information on weather in Italy see:
Some more resources for getting married in Italy:
http://www.weddinginitaly.net/
http://www.happening.it/index.php?pag=weddings&lan=en
Remember to tell them you found them via Mrs2Be.com!!
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