Getting Married Abroad - Italy or Seychelles
Getting Married Abroad - Italy or Seychelles
Author
Discussion

Soir

Original Poster:

2,277 posts

268 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Partner and I plan on getting married around April/May 2010. Partner is due to give birth in a few weeks (1st child).

Originally wanted to go seychelles or sri lanka/maldvies with the baby (no other family/friends, just us), but the more we think about it the more we think it would be impractical to do (no support/family, very remote so lack of local hospitals etc..)

Therefore I think we will look at Italy, in particular Sicily or maybe even Sardinia with small amount of family joining us - does anyone have any experience of getting wed in Italy? any tips on wedding planners (or can you do it yourself) kind of costs etc..?

thanks in advance..

jeff m

4,066 posts

287 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
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Check residency requirements.

Chilli

17,320 posts

265 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
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Leave the Nipper with the out-laws, then get yourselves to the Maldives.

neilsie

952 posts

275 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
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if you are taking the baby, it may be obvious, but the Maldives are quite warm. so you will inevitably spending a lot of time in the shade/inside.

if the Maldives, its also a captured market, so you need to buy everything at island prices inc water. it may work out expensive considering you will need nappies, baby food etc.

Sardinia is lovely, and the Italians as a whole are quite child friendly. So you will have no problem taking the child out to restaurants. Cyprus is similar.


Soir

Original Poster:

2,277 posts

268 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
neilsie said:
if you are taking the baby, it may be obvious, but the Maldives are quite warm. so you will inevitably spending a lot of time in the shade/inside.

if the Maldives, its also a captured market, so you need to buy everything at island prices inc water. it may work out expensive considering you will need nappies, baby food etc.

Sardinia is lovely, and the Italians as a whole are quite child friendly. So you will have no problem taking the child out to restaurants. Cyprus is similar.
I've heard italy is very child friendly, which is swinging our decision that way. Went to maldives this year and was amazing & would love to go again, but just worry facilities not geared up for a baby.

Has anyone got married in Italy? any recommendations?

Soir

Original Poster:

2,277 posts

268 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
thegavster said:
To get married in Italy you just need a kind of local marriage licence which takes three days, so both you and your partner need to be in Italy 3 full working days before the wedding.

We were organising one in Italy and were using a wedding planner, neither of us spoke Italian so I suspect it was the easier way, however I don't see that she was indispensable. I think one of the most useful things she was going to take care of was arranging the booking for the registry office as they only do a couple of weddings per day, only bookable 6 months in advance. She was going to get to the office and book it in person exactly 6 months in advance.

However, as you do need to deal with local bureaucracy to an extent, I think one would be useful if neither of you speak the native tongue.
Thanks for the info - I think your right so everything is in order to use a wedding planner - choices choices, do we use a UK one, or an italian based wedding planner (google finds tons of them!)

cs02rm0

13,816 posts

220 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
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I think May is into the rainy season in the Maldives. Not sure if that affects your choice.

Stablelad

3,815 posts

233 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Soir said:
neilsie said:
if you are taking the baby, it may be obvious, but the Maldives are quite warm. so you will inevitably spending a lot of time in the shade/inside.

if the Maldives, its also a captured market, so you need to buy everything at island prices inc water. it may work out expensive considering you will need nappies, baby food etc.

Sardinia is lovely, and the Italians as a whole are quite child friendly. So you will have no problem taking the child out to restaurants. Cyprus is similar.
I've heard italy is very child friendly, which is swinging our decision that way. Went to maldives this year and was amazing & would love to go again, but just worry facilities not geared up for a baby.

Has anyone got married in Italy? any recommendations?
I can help! There are a lot of 'Brit' weddings in the little Town of Varenna on Lake Como. We have an apartment there smileIt's a really beautiful place and easy to get to (1 hour drive/train from Bergamo....cheap flights!). If you're interested I can hook you up with the relevant people to help you organise.

Varenna-



Our Front Room- (apartment available for rent wink



View from all 3 balconies-






We have a pool too! Great place for kids.


Excuse the shameless advertising! hehe

Kuroblack350

1,388 posts

229 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Soir said:
thegavster said:
To get married in Italy you just need a kind of local marriage licence which takes three days, so both you and your partner need to be in Italy 3 full working days before the wedding.

We were organising one in Italy and were using a wedding planner, neither of us spoke Italian so I suspect it was the easier way, however I don't see that she was indispensable. I think one of the most useful things she was going to take care of was arranging the booking for the registry office as they only do a couple of weddings per day, only bookable 6 months in advance. She was going to get to the office and book it in person exactly 6 months in advance.

However, as you do need to deal with local bureaucracy to an extent, I think one would be useful if neither of you speak the native tongue.
Thanks for the info - I think your right so everything is in order to use a wedding planner - choices choices, do we use a UK one, or an italian based wedding planner (google finds tons of them!)
We booked ours as an all-in-on package with First Choice - excellent service, they have a dedicated wedding office that take you through all of the technical requirements - of which there are many..!

My only bit of useful advice is to start early, the docs take ages, translations are costly and take ages, and you'll want to check everything at least 16 times before departing the UK.

It is the however, the best way to go by far smile

Soir

Original Poster:

2,277 posts

268 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Kuroblack350 said:
Soir said:
thegavster said:
To get married in Italy you just need a kind of local marriage licence which takes three days, so both you and your partner need to be in Italy 3 full working days before the wedding.

We were organising one in Italy and were using a wedding planner, neither of us spoke Italian so I suspect it was the easier way, however I don't see that she was indispensable. I think one of the most useful things she was going to take care of was arranging the booking for the registry office as they only do a couple of weddings per day, only bookable 6 months in advance. She was going to get to the office and book it in person exactly 6 months in advance.

However, as you do need to deal with local bureaucracy to an extent, I think one would be useful if neither of you speak the native tongue.
Thanks for the info - I think your right so everything is in order to use a wedding planner - choices choices, do we use a UK one, or an italian based wedding planner (google finds tons of them!)
We booked ours as an all-in-on package with First Choice - excellent service, they have a dedicated wedding office that take you through all of the technical requirements - of which there are many..!

My only bit of useful advice is to start early, the docs take ages, translations are costly and take ages, and you'll want to check everything at least 16 times before departing the UK.

It is the however, the best way to go by far smile
great idea, I'll try firstchoice

Silver993tt

9,064 posts

268 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Malta might be a nice idea and also Gozo which is it's much quieter sister island. Families out until early hours of the morning during summer time and April/May the weather will be low-mid 20s smile

Kuroblack350

1,388 posts

229 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Soir said:
Kuroblack350 said:
Soir said:
thegavster said:
To get married in Italy you just need a kind of local marriage licence which takes three days, so both you and your partner need to be in Italy 3 full working days before the wedding.

We were organising one in Italy and were using a wedding planner, neither of us spoke Italian so I suspect it was the easier way, however I don't see that she was indispensable. I think one of the most useful things she was going to take care of was arranging the booking for the registry office as they only do a couple of weddings per day, only bookable 6 months in advance. She was going to get to the office and book it in person exactly 6 months in advance.

However, as you do need to deal with local bureaucracy to an extent, I think one would be useful if neither of you speak the native tongue.
Thanks for the info - I think your right so everything is in order to use a wedding planner - choices choices, do we use a UK one, or an italian based wedding planner (google finds tons of them!)
We booked ours as an all-in-on package with First Choice - excellent service, they have a dedicated wedding office that take you through all of the technical requirements - of which there are many..!

My only bit of useful advice is to start early, the docs take ages, translations are costly and take ages, and you'll want to check everything at least 16 times before departing the UK.

It is the however, the best way to go by far smile
great idea, I'll try firstchoice
They definately have Italy on offer (or did in 2006) as we thought about it for a while. They also have a useful quick-start guide to residency, docs required etc. You'll need their dedicated weddings brochure.

The other thing I found useful was their email assiatnce, you'll get a coordinator based in the manchester office who you can email with just about any wedding/destination query.

Enjoy smile

IanMorewood

4,309 posts

277 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Seen a couple of Italian weddings in Sardinia they love a big wedding. With Ryanair, Jet2 and BMI all flying ino Sardinia I would say you could get a fair few friends and family joining you if thats what you want. Obviously April/May time it wont be roasting hot but it should be plesantly warm during the day and quite cool at night.


honest_delboy

1,744 posts

229 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
Seychelles - bit third worldy still and not great value for money.

just my 2p

Soir

Original Poster:

2,277 posts

268 months

Wednesday 21st January 2009
quotequote all
thegavster said:
We were using an Italian planner who does about 50/50 large Italian weddings/weddings for foreigners.

I can e-mail you some costings later, although this was Tuscany, not down South.
yes please - many thanks

Puggit

49,788 posts

277 months

Thursday 22nd January 2009
quotequote all
I don't believe it's possible to actually marry in the Maldives, just repeat vows. So that's that anyway!

cslgirl

2,215 posts

249 months

Thursday 22nd January 2009
quotequote all
Puggit said:
I don't believe it's possible to actually marry in the Maldives, just repeat vows. So that's that anyway!
I think thats right - because its a muslim country. We wanted to get wed there back in 2001 but couldn't. Went to Mauritius instead.

Soir

Original Poster:

2,277 posts

268 months

Thursday 22nd January 2009
quotequote all
Discussions with the missus:

She really wants me/her/baby to go somewhere like seychelles (no family)
I think maybe too early to take a child that far away (fear of lack hospitals/support ect) so am thinking Italy with the added bonus we can take immediate family with us.

priority here is the baby (not even born yet, so will be 12mths old by time wedding) and not too bothered about family being there (just moreso support for baby)

what would you do? (cannot even consider leaving the baby)
1) Italy with family
2) Seychelles no family


motusinsardinia

1 posts

212 months

Friday 6th February 2009
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Hello Andy (Soir), I wuold like to point you at my website www.weddingsisardinia.it We can plan a family and child-frindly wedding in Sardinia. As you may know, Sardinia is now very well connected with low fares airlines. drop me and email at info@weddingsinsardinia.it and we can talk more. ciao, Mario

nottyash

4,671 posts

224 months

Friday 6th February 2009
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Seychelles money is closed currancy. so take cash and change it on the beach!
Instead of getting 4 per £ I got 11.
Nice beaches, but only cheap if you change currency illegally unfortunatly.