Eloping in Croatia

Kelly, Given your criteria to be close to water, another possibility you might consider is the Oregon Coast. It's absolutely beautiful and you could have a civil ceremony with a Marriage Commissioner (or whatever your equivalent is in the U.S.). While it's on the other side of the country from your home location, it would be "somewhat" easier for a small group of family and friends to join the celebration. You could then have a "confirmation" or whatever in Europe, and Italy would be a wonderful choice. Two locations that immediately come to mind are either Positano or Capri. If you're on a low budget, you could invite a few friends, and they could act as the videographers or photographers. I can also suggest a Photographer that lives in southern Italy, although I don't know what he charges. Depending on your budget, you could also arrange Photographers from here that do "destinations weddings" (again, I can suggest if you want). One comment about Greece. Although there are currently some problems in Athens (especially today, according to the news), I suspect things will be quieter on the islands. I was chatting with a British wedding party on Santorini last year, which is a very popular destination for weddings. If you went directly from ATH to Santorini, I doubt you'd be affected by the problems. You might enjoy having a look at This Website. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Hi Kelly, I'm sure you've likely considered this, but is there any chance you could have the civil service portion done here in Chicago and then have more of a symbolic ceremony in Europe? I know the basement of City Hall doesn't sound all that romantic, but I think they also perform the services at the Cultural Center, too, and really it would only be to take care of the legalities of it all... or do you have a friend who is a judge (or knows a judge) who could do it in his/her office? I had friends who married in Italy and yes, the paperwork was overwhelming and the costs really added up because they had to hire someone to handle the paperwork in Italy, along with hiring someone to translate all the documents. I'm not sure about Croatia (or anywhere else), but I imagine paperwork is paperwork, and it will all need to be translated, filed, stamped, sealed, and whatever else the officials do to make it legal. It's certainly do-able, but will require quite a bit of research (especially figuring out which countries might have the most lenient requirements) and it might cause a few headaches along the way. I always wonder, too, if you get married abroad but then a few years down the road need to get another certified copy of your marriage certificate (or, heaven forbid, dissolve the marriage), how do you go about getting it and is it an arduous process? My husband and I also seriously considered marrying abroad, but at the end of the day the paperwork angle was just too involved for our tastes. Instead, we married in the office of a judge friend at City Hall here and then embarked on 4 int'l trips that year, each of which we picked a spot and exchanged new vows. The memories will last forever. Sorry this doesn't help directly, but I'm trying to throw out other ideas! Good luck!

What you are finding is that it is very difficult to have a legal wedding in a foreign country. Most couple find the paper work to complicated for a quick and simple wedding.