Getting married in France ???

[LDN]

Has anyone done this? I am researching this after having been told that Brits cannot marry in France... it seems that you can and the U.K government website states the following items must be presented to a local council over there:

- Your passport.
- Your full birth certificate (with your parents’ details). This will normally need to be issued in the six months prior to your wedding. If you’re asked for a recent copy, you’ll need to contact the General Registry Office to order one.
- Proof of residence (utility bill, pay slip etc). You or your partner (or in some cases your parents) will need to have been resident in the town for at least 40 days before the ceremony.
- If you are divorced, your decree absolute (or the equivalent if you did not get divorced in the UK.)
- A certificate of custom – we can provide this.
- A certificate of celibacy. We can’t provide this, so you’ll need to download our official note that explains this and take it to the town hall.

• * where it says proof of residence; I assume this means that we do need a home (or second home) in France (which we have) - but this seems to say that you can ONLY get married in your local town... anywhere else if off limits.?

[Bluebarge]

LDN said:

but this seems to say that you can ONLY get married in your local town... anywhere else if off limits.?

That's my understanding, and I assume it is so that the Mairie can check you are who you say you are against local records before marrying you.

We had a civil ceremony in the UK and then a religious ceremony in France to avoid the bureaucratic faff of a civil ceremony in France (at the time you also had to produce a medical certificate to show that you didn't have any communicable diseases/were likely to drop dead in the near future).

If you don't want a religious ceremony in France, get married here and have the party there would be my advice.

[LDN]

Bluebarge said:

LDN said:

but this seems to say that you can ONLY get married in your local town... anywhere else if off limits.?

That's my understanding, and I assume it is so that the Mairie can check you are who you say you are against local records before marrying you.

We had a civil ceremony in the UK and then a religious ceremony in France to avoid the bureaucratic faff of a civil ceremony in France (at the time you also had to produce a medical certificate to show that you didn't have any communicable diseases/were likely to drop dead in the near future).

If you don't want a religious ceremony in France, get married here and have the party there would be my advice.

Hmmmmmm... noted! Will take that on-board. I should have known it'd not be easy over there.

[trunnie]

We did both the civil and religous ceremonies here in France, the one at the local Marie, the other at a church in Paris the following day. One tip is to do your research and make absolutely clear that you have the correct information from the local Marie as to what they need and when. We got different answers from different members of staff (my Mrs is French so she is very certain about what was said) one of which very nearly ruined the timing for the religous wedding, as you have to have the civil wedding first. If it's a small town you should be fine, if you're very nice to the staff and perhaps get to know the Maire.

Beware that the French require you to meet your home state marriage requirements and prove that you have done so as well as the French ones. Our Marie thought that this meant 3 months notice locally as they are used to marrying Portuguese citizens (as we have a big Portuguese population in our suburb) whereas in fact for UK nationals no notice is needed as the Consulate papers confirm. The actual marriage ceremony was great, the staff doing the marriage were very helpful and friendly.

[trunnie]

I forgot to add that either one of you or your parents needs to have 1 month residence in the commune where the marriage is to take place

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F9...

Oh and this government website appears to answer your question in that 2 foreigners can marry in France if one of them meets the one month continuous prior residence requirement

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F2...

You'll probably also need to get anything official in English translated by a recognised official translator.

[LDN]

Thanks for all of the advice; more food for thought! We are not religious so we'd more likely have the official knot-tie ceremony - and then have an informal thing afterward. We know where we'd like and I really wish my French was better, to better deal with it all. Thanks again for the tips.

[456mgt]

Unless there's a *really* good reason to get married in France, you're better off looking elsewhere eg Italy. For some reason the French don't like this and make it a total ball-ache.