Getting married in Italy

It can be done legally. But it takes months and months to get through all the red tape. And then you need to plan to arrive several weeks prior to the wedding to double check everything.

Kristen.....

Regardless of whom you use for your wedding planner, make sure that you understand all of the legal requirements involved in getting married in a foreign country such as possible residency requirements and how long in advance you need to apply for a wedding license, etc.

All that aside, best wishes on your upcoming marriage.

I have read that many people actually do the "legal" ceremony here in the US and then just do a "commemorative" ceremony in the foreign country.

Kristen, I have some material on this somewhere in my e-mail archives as once thought about doing a vow ceremony in Italy. If I can locate that information, I will send it to you off-line.

Here's a link to the US State Department comments on the process to give you an idea of what's involved.

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_754.html

Thanks everyone! My understanding was that you can do it legally, but yes there is a fair amount of hoops to jump through, and that is one reason to have a wedding planner/coordinator, who can assist with all the paperwork etc. and ensure you have and are filing everythig you need, when you need to...

If anyone knows of a good wedding planner in Florence/Tuscany, please let me know!
thanks again!

From this board:

Getting married in Italy
I just got married in Florence, Italy and it was fabulous. When I was looking into getting married, I contacted many wedding planners in Italy and got a different story from everyone, with crazy prices. Then I found Jo Bertolino (www.tuscanpledges.com) on this website and contacted her. She was incredible. Everything that everyone else in Italy told me I had to do here in the states, from going to the Embassy to the Consulat, from getting papers translated was total bull. Jo took care of EVERYTHING over there in Italy. All I had to do was send her some basic information and some photo copies, and she did the rest. Everything went smoothly and we had a ball. Tell Jo I sent you!
Dave Blecman
Woodstock, MD USA 06/30/2008

I'm sorry not to have a wedding planner in Florence (my daughter used one in Rome last summer), but my advice would be to email a bunch of them. That's what we did & chose the one who actually answered the questions we posed & didn't try to make the wedding fit into THEIR plans, but that of my daughter and future son-in-law. There are 2 ways to have a legal wedding: a Catholic ceremony or one in a government building. Otherwise it's considered symbolic, such as the TomKat wedding, & you would have to get married at home first. My daughter had a legal ceremony at the Campidoglio (capital)in Rome. Although I have planned several large weddings at home for my other daughter & several relatives, it was so helpful to have a wedding planner in the city where the Italian wedding was to be. We couldn't get an actual date until many things were done on the homefront. They first got an Apostille from the state where their birth certificates were issued; this is a seal which allowed them to use their birth certificates in a foreign country. They also got their birth certificates translated to Italian (required). Next was a visit to the Italian consulate (none in Seattle, so they traveled to San Francisco) for the Atto Notorio, which is a document saying there are no impediments to get married. They took along their birth certificates with the Apostille in English & Italian, passports, & witnesses who couldn't be related to them. Once the consulate issued the Atto Notorio, I faxed this to the wedding planner who then put their names in the books with the best date available for their marriage at the Campidoglio. They needed to be in Rome 3 days before the wedding and needed to go to the US consulate for their Nulla Osta, a declaration saying they were free to marry. It sounds like a lot to do, but with the wedding planner and a little bit of doggedness, it happened beautifully! The planner also helped us with other details & a reception for about 12 people. It CAN be done...

Oh, I also forgot to mention that our wedding planner personally escorted my daughter and fiance to the US consulate and some other office that they had to visit. She also served as the translator at the actual ceremony, which you have to provide, since the ceremony will be in Italian. As long as you don't have your heart set on a SPECIFIC date and have a few months to spare, the rest eventually falls into place. The hardest thing is if you have a lot of people who are planning to fly to Italy, because they start getting antsy about finalizing plans. Of course that can't be done until the wedding date is set after the filing of the Atto Notorio. Typically in Italian fashion, the largest hurdle was trying to nail down the visit to the Italian consulate in San Francisco who was on "vacation" for a long time! When he finally came back into town, things happened quickly from that point. But I'm sure you have a consulate in Boston, which will simplify things. If you have more questions, please send me a message. Good luck!

Thanks Redmond - that was extremely helpful! I have 2 years until the wedding - sounds like I'm going to need all that time! Thanks again!

Oops - I wrote 'Redmond' - I meant 'Sue'! Typing too fast...

Kristen-Glad I could help. Since you're not planning to get married for two years, I thought I would mention that the Atto Notorio from the Italian consulate has an expiration date...usually 3-6 months. I THINK you can request a "no expiry date" to be put on it. This would be something that a wedding planner should be able to help you with. Try to choose a planner who has a fairly good grasp of English because you'll be exchanging TONS of emails! We knew with ours, because her initial response gave her background which included living in England (?) for a few years.

I was married in Florence in 2000 and I used Italia Romantica as our planner there is paper work to take care of here in the states before you go and you will need to do a few things once in Italy.We got married at the Palazzo Vecchio in a civil ceremony and it was so worth all effort we put into it and we could not have planned it any better in our dreams thr company is located in England but they were so helpful thru all stages of planning when we got to the american consulate in Florence our assigned planner met us there to help us declare our intent to marry and we were the only couple that afternoon out of three who got permission to marry because all our paperwork was done correctly and the day we married our planner with a translator met us at the Vecchio and we had a wonderful memorable day.So do not get discouraged you will be rewarded with a wonderful wedding in the most wonderful country.Congratulations!

I wanted to update my last post I have now gone over the paper work to give you as much info as possible. In the US the paperwork we were required to do was go to the Italian consolato we went to the one located in Miami,and with 2 witnesses not related to us applied for a Atto Di Notorieta'we had to also hire a translator to get us thru it.We also at that time applied for an Apostille a doucument from the secretary of state of florida I am not sure if that is only a requirment in Fla. or not.Once in Florence we had to go to the american consulate declare our Intent we were already given the date and time of our ceremony in the US by our planner well in advance.Our planner walked us thru all the legalities and we planned our own day as far as Wedding Dinner, I did my own flowers we walked into the florist the day before and I picked from a whole room of flowers.I was very layed back with the details we met with the chef of the resturant in Fisole it overlooks florence a few days before and he made us a wonderful meal and he arranged the cake.We had a civil ceremony at the Plazzo vecchio which was a beautiful room with red and gold ornate furniture and huge tapestries of wedding ceremonies hanging on the walls it is really an amazing room.Our planner would have arranged every detail but we decided to take that on as part of the experience.At the ceremony we had to have a translator which was all arranged by the planner the ceremony is in Italian.The people of Florence were so warm to to us and really made our day great.We had Family with us and we all had such a good time that we stayed with them for the first 4 days of our honeymoon then we saw the rest of Italy and Europe by eurail we bought those tickets thru Rick Steves.It can be done and it was so worth it!

My fiance and I are getting married in Vernazza in September. We have our birth certificates with Apostille, but need to have translated to Italian for our ATTO NOTORIO. Can anyone recommend a good translation service?