# Getting Married Abroad?



## NickyK (22 Mar 2010)

Hi All,

I'm looking for info on getting married in another country. Basically any info from anybody who's done it or who's been to one. We haven't ruled out any country yet.

Thanks,

Nicky


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## truthseeker (22 Mar 2010)

I did it last august. Ive also been to a couple.

What kind of info are you looking for? All countries have different marriage laws, in some cases there is a lot of paperwork and a long wait period, in others there is less, some want blood tests, some dont etc...

Are you talking about a civil marriage or a religious marriage, in Ireland the civil ceremony is carried out as part of a Catholic ceremony, but this is not the case is a lot of places and you would need to do the church bit seperately to the civil bit etc...

If you can be more specific about what you want to know I might be able to give you a few pointers.


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## Sandals (22 Mar 2010)

Hi, got married in Edinburgh four years ago. Civil in India Buildings (now moved). Lovely city/day etc.  We had a child already so didnt fancy approaching priest etc that was in the Parish at the time. Very handy to arrange. Two forms from Department in Ireland and few forms from Edinburgh. Had to go to commissioner of oaths etc. 

Flights very handy for family was second reason.


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## dymo (22 Mar 2010)

Got married abrod we when to St Lucia if you what any more information i would be glad to help you


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## fizzelina (22 Mar 2010)

There are travel agencies who specialise in planning weddings abroad, you should make an appt to visit one and they would give you options and ideas as well. Friends of mine got married in Mauritius and for €8k had a fabulous wedding, a lovely all inclusive honeymoon and a stop over for 2 nights in Dubai coming home. It depends whether you want somewhere abroad that family and friends would travel to, or just some place the two of you can go.


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## Ciaraella (22 Mar 2010)

mrs2be.ie is a good site for all things wedding related, i've found it alot of help!


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## NickyK (23 Mar 2010)

My sister got married in Lanzarote last year and it was fantastic. I just wanted to know what countries people would recommend and which to steer clear of. Would be getting married in 2012 so waiting for the right place is not a problem. Would have to be Europe as I wouldn't put family/friends to much expense. Possibly somewhere Ryanair fly to for guests to arrive/depart in a day or so.


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## dymo (23 Mar 2010)

My Friend is getting married in Portugal villamoura this year she is having about 100 pepole and we are all staying for 4 days to a week.Just one thing Rynair flights do not always work out the cheepest.We are flying from Monday to a Friday and the flights are €500 and the accomdation is costing us £450 for the 4 nights but of course that is the end of july if you go for other times of the year it will be much cheeper for your guests.


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## Celtwytch (23 Mar 2010)

As Truthseeker said, different countries have different laws etc., and marriage in other countries may not necessarily be recognised as legal here.  Have a read of this - it should help to steer you in the right direction.  http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...nships/getting-married/getting_married_abroad

Oh, and congratulations, and have fun planning your wedding


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## haminka1 (25 Mar 2010)

I've heard this venue in Slovakia is particularly beautiful : http://www.bojnicecastle.sk/sobase-en.html. Both, the castle and surroundings are really romantic.


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## Nationaldude (31 Mar 2010)

We got married in Rome 4 years ago, spent 5 days there in total with 15 family members, flew home and had a big bash for everybody else then flew back out to the caribbean for 10 days. They were the best 3 weeks of my life and would do it all again in a heartbeat.


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## browtal (31 Mar 2010)

My daughter got married in Tenerife, Canary Islands 2 years ago.  The hotel arranged everything except the church.  Photographs, video, cake, flowers, music, transport to hotel after church, all organised by them. 
The church part was very easy with a beautiful small church in the square of Los Cristionas. Priest most helpful, his english is good, only one priest in that parish, arranged alter boys etc. Suggested a small donation for himself and church , after being asked, a total of €100.  Everything is so much cheaper there.
Hotel provided accommodation and recommended more affordable accommodation nearby.The prices were excellent. The day was wonderful most memorable with hotel beside the sea. They arranged everything from the time we arrived at hotel, music for the arriving guests, harp or other as desired.  The music for the day also. They moved the guests for photos etc. and kept the party going. Total cost of wedding about 1/3 of prices here.
They add on supplement if after midnight wedding.  We guaranteed about €200 in sales of drink and well surpassed that.  They were amazed at the Irish appetite for drink. They have a different way of doing the drink and may try to get you to pay for all the drink in advance - dont agree.  They are thrilled with Irish weddings. They supplied some extra on the house after midnight.
More information if you would like to contact me be delighted to help.  Browtal


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## txirimiri (1 Apr 2010)

Sorry to sound unromantic but it is of the utmost importance that you research properly marriage, divorce and custody laws in the country you are planning to marry in. Have the ceremony/party/family get together wherever you want but please DO NOT contract a legal marriage somewhere without putting in some serious research in advance as to what this might entail given all the eventualities. If you are both Irish, have you thought about marrying in the reigstry office in Ireland and then doing the ceremony somewhere else?


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## truthseeker (1 Apr 2010)

txirimiri said:


> Sorry to sound unromantic but it is of the utmost importance that you research properly marriage, divorce and custody laws in the country you are planning to marry in.


 
The divorce and custody laws that are applicable are for the country of your residence, not the country you choose to marry in, so no matter where you marry (so long as it is a legal and valid marraige as recognised by Irish law i.e., same sex marriage is not recognised under Irish law although you can do this in another country it will have no legal standing here), if you then live in Ireland and choose to divorce or invoke custody laws, its Irish law that applies.


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## emmt (5 Jul 2010)

> The divorce and custody laws that are applicable are for the country of  your residence, not the country you choose to marry in, so no matter  where you marry (so long as it is a legal and valid marraige as  recognised by Irish law i.e., same sex marriage is not recognised under  Irish law although you can do this in another country it will have no  legal standing here), if you then live in Ireland and choose to divorce  or invoke custody laws, its Irish law that applies.



Hope Im not hijacking the conversation here but re your rights as an Irish citizen having married abroad, if you got married in a civil ceremony in Northern Ireland/Britain, would it have any effect on your chances of adoption? Want to adopt via the Irish channels but need to get married first.  There's a mandatory 3month wait before you can get married here, In NI I think its 2 weeks and in NYC its 24hrs! Dont want to do anything that will delay an already long adoption process


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## nediaaa (5 Jul 2010)

hi We got married in Mauritius. It was so well arranged by the hotel out there we thought it wasnt arranged. There was a day of travelling to govenment buildings in Mauritius to do the paperwork bit. It was only the two of us.No stress. No argueing about what strangers get to go to the wedding. i organised it all-not bad for a bloke.


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## emmt (5 Jul 2010)

Fair play to u nediaaa!!  Did it take much organising? Im looking to get married as soon as I can, as easily as I can, in a way that wont cause any issues for me further down the line (i.e. unforseen legal issues that I havent thought about.) Neither of us is into the big day as such. Will have a party when we get back but on the day, just want something nice and simple that focuses on the actual commitment itself


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## csirl (6 Jul 2010)

1234 said:


> How about a simple Civil Cermony in Ireland? It take 3 months to organise the paperwork before you can marry if I remember correctly.


 
Agree with 1234 - the safest option is to do the legals in Ireland before you go. A lot of couples do this for obvious reasons. Many also do it because in many countries, a church wedding is not regarded as a legal civil wedding - you still have to do the civil part anyway. Most people who do the civil ceremony in Ireland dont tell anyone so as not to take away from the big day - they just turn up at the registery office with 2 witnesses and get it all done in c.15min.


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## truthseeker (6 Jul 2010)

1234 said:


> How about a simple Civil Cermony in Ireland? It take 3 months to organise the paperwork before you can marry if I remember correctly.


 
It takes 3 months from the time of your appointment with the registrar. In my experience (Dublin Office), the earliest appointment they could give me was just over 3 months from the time of my call, meaning it would have been just over 6 months before I could legally marry.


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## Splash (6 Jul 2010)

Hi, we are getting married abroad at the end of August. We were given the impression we could do both the civil and religious together. However, it become a very bureaucratic, & potentially very expensive process trying to organise the civil piece abroad in addition to the church. We couldn't be sure at the end whether we would be legally married on the day!

We have decided to do the civil piece in Ireland first, religious abroad. As we were within the 3 months notice to give, we phoned the family courts in Dublin. They advised us to ring around the registry offices in the country and we secured a date outside of Dublin very quickly. It was then a matter of getting a letter from the registry office, making a date in the family court, and appearing in front of the judge in the family court to explain our circumstances, and get a marriage exemption. If you are in a hurry, have no prior obligations, and have a valid reason for needing to get married within the 3 month notice period, they will assist you. And they were most helpful.


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## nediaaa (6 Jul 2010)

Hi Emmt. The wedding did not take much planning. The hotel did all the arranging apart from the flights. They were very professional. They only do 1 wedding a day so focus more on the couple. They organise the witnesses also. We had no family with us so therefore there ws=as no stress. You need to make sure all your paperwork is 100% right even down to the exact spelling of your names.
     I dont know what you need to do for legal reasons here.We have never been asked for marraige certificate here. Best of Luck


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## emmt (9 Jul 2010)

Hi all. Thanks for the responses. Agree that the safest option is to do the legals in Ireland. Made appointment in Galway for July 19th but am now looking into doing it in Northern Ireland cos the wait there is shorter. Hopefully the legals in NI will satisfy the legal requirements in the Republic. Hoping to adopt, so want to register for that as soon as possible but need to be married first. Want to get all my ducks in a row and do everything right. NI should be all right, do ya think?


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## emmt (9 Jul 2010)

No, havent started it yet cos i was advised that it was better to wait until I was married to do it - since its something we're gonna do asap anyway, it wouldnt delay things too long.
I believe it takes up to 2 years before you enter the assessment process, followed by about a year of assessment before you can choose which country you want to adopt from


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## silverwake (15 Jul 2010)

I got married in Las Vegas. The process was getting the marriage certificate from the county council there the saem day or the day prior to the ceremony (you can go just before going to the chapel, there's no time limitations for that).
Then I asked for the apostille once I had the marriage license, and voilà. All done within a couple of weeks.
I then contacted the Revenue in order to change the tax bands. they took effect the year after.
No hassle at all there.
What I mean is that if the country you're getting married in is part of the HCCH, you should not have any issues with getting married abroad.
Here's a list of the member countries: http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?act=conventions.status&cid=41


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## Sagbabe (23 Aug 2010)

Hey Silverware, how did you go about arranging your marriage in Vegas, its something dp and myself have seriously been thinking about.  Where did you go and where did you find out the info from?  It would just be so much easier to do it this way (though we both love the idea of turning up on a harley  - prob the only chance we'd get!)


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## silverwake (24 Aug 2010)

Hi Sagbabe, it's really simple as I said: You just need the marriage license from the county (http://www.accessclarkcounty.com/depts/clerk/pages/marriage_information.aspx) and then choose a chapel.
After that, you have to ask for an apostille to make the marriage legal in Ireland. Most of the chapels do that for you if you ask, but it's much cheaper to ask for it yourself (although, the chapel will send all the documents required and it's less of a hassle).
It's cheap, fast and above all, fun


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## mejane (26 Aug 2010)

Just want to add to this re marrying in Las Vegas. I was married there in the last few years & I did not require an apostille. (we are both Irish citizens) We got our marriage licence the day before we married in Las Vegas, all you need for this if its your 1st marriage are your passports & the fee , $50 from what I remember. 

You then bring the licence to the chapel, they give you a "decorative" marriage certificate after the ceremony & you have to send away for the official cert. (the minister or whoever marrys you will give you a slip to send away, think it was called a pink slip) You then get your official marriage cert in the post soon afer. 

The marriage is registered in the state you marry. So would be registerd in Nevada & not Ireland. However your marriage is recognised here provided you complied with the laws of the state in which you married. Ie over 18, etc. 

I have never needed an apostille & my marriage was immediately recognised by the revenue, & anyone else for that matter, upon receipt of my marriage certificate.
Any other questions just ask


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## silverwake (27 Aug 2010)

Well, I never had to send the certificate to the Revenue or the apostille, but I was told it was mandatory (in Las Vegas, no one told me so here in Ireland).

Besides, you can always ask for it later anyway, so maybe it's just not necessary at all as mejane says.


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## Ciara2011 (4 Apr 2011)

Weddingszone.ie and its forums is a good site for all things wedding related, i've found it alot of help as I have been planning my wedding


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## CMK (6 Apr 2011)

We got married in Rome - the Irish College over there organised it all very well.  You had to give them four months notice and they needed that amount of time to the legal side of things.  All went very well.  Highly recommend, no hassle.  We didnt invite anyone - we just had my sister and her husband as witnesses.  We had party  for 100 people when we came back in a hotel near us which everyone enjoyed.    Highly recommend.


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## olddoll (9 Jun 2013)

The daughter of a good friend of mine planning to marry in Thailand early next year.  She is Irish but living in U.K. and her partner is English and divorced. As far as I know she is not planning on a Church wedding. 

If anybody has any suggestions/recommendations on getting married in Thailand it would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks


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