Getting Married Abroad (Spain)

amaru · 5 Jul 2007 at 11:20

Hi Guys after a little bit of infomation

Me and the girlfriend have decided to get married next year and are looking at Mallorca as we really love the place. We have been in touch with a wedding planner who advised due to spanish law we have to have a registry office ceremony here before we can have the real one over there. As you can imagine the GF is not keen on getting "married" twice but has agreed that if the ceremony over here is very simple it would be ok. My questions are:-

How simple can a registry office do be? can we just walk in sign a few papers and leave married or do we have to do the whole, vows rings etc. Basically i need to know what the minimum we can do so it does not feel like we have done it twice.

Cheers for your help

scorza · 5 Jul 2007 at 11:24

You need two witnesses as well. My sister is getting married in France next month and is basically in the same situation. I'm going to be one of her witnesses at the registry office in a couple of weeks, then she'll have a big ceremony in France the following week

amaru · 5 Jul 2007 at 11:31

So all i will need to do is turn up with witnesses and sign papers is this right?

[TW]Fox · 5 Jul 2007 at 11:33

Do it in the UK then all your friends and family can come to.

Also there are many better places in the world that you'll love more than Mallorca. There is more to foreign travel than crappy package holidays to tired Spanish island resorts full of English people.

scorza · 5 Jul 2007 at 11:37

amaru said:
So all i will need to do is turn up with witnesses and sign papers is this right?

Basically yeah - think there's some sort of ceremony but my Sis wants it as simple as possible as well.

amaru · 5 Jul 2007 at 11:39

scorza said:
Basically yeah - think there's some sort of ceremony but my Sis wants it as simple as possible as well.

Cheers mate for the info. I will contact them to double check.

chimaera · 5 Jul 2007 at 12:27

Are you sure thats right? I got married in the states and its perfectly legal over here without a registry wedding.

I would've thought in the era of the EU you could get married in Spain and it would be legal in the UK :confused:

Very strange.

Vixen · 5 Jul 2007 at 12:33

chimaera said:
Are you sure thats right? I got married in the states and its perfectly legal over here without a registry wedding.

I would've thought in the era of the EU you could get married in Spain and it would be legal in the UK

Very strange.

Different countries have different laws about who can be married there, so it may be that at least one person has to be Spanish or something similar before you can get married in Spain.
A friend of mine wanted to get married away from home, and the place she was looking at (I've forgotten where) required the couple to be in the country for a certain amount of time before the ceremony could take place.

Bill101 · 5 Jul 2007 at 13:28

chimaera said:
Are you sure thats right? I got married in the states and its perfectly legal over here without a registry wedding.

I would've thought in the era of the EU you could get married in Spain and it would be legal in the UK

Very strange.

I wonder if it's to do with France and Spain being Catholic countries as even when you get married in a Catholic church here you still have to go an sign a registry book to make it legal in the eyes of the British (C.of E) government

amaru · 5 Jul 2007 at 13:58

Bill101 said:
I wonder if it's to do with France and Spain being Catholic countries as even when you get married in a Catholic church here you still have to go an sign a registry book to make it legal in the eyes of the British (C.of E) government

After checking it seems this could be the reason

eg

If you are roman catholic not a problem, fill the paper work out job done
if you are not (Civil wedding) you have to be a resident for 2 years in spain but even then you still need to register with your local town hall in spain before you get married. :eek:

. So the only way to make it legal is to have a simple do in a registry office in the uk and have the real thing in spain. all fun i guess.

chimaera · 5 Jul 2007 at 14:13

amaru said:
After checking it seems this could be the reason

eg

If you are roman catholic not a problem, fill the paper work out job done
if you are not (Civil wedding) you have to be a resident for 2 years in spain but even then you still need to register with your local town hall in spain before you get married. . So the only way to make it legal is to have a simple do in a registry office in the uk and have the real thing in spain. all fun i guess.

Fair enough, if thats what it takes then go for it, mine was only small but it was an amazing day. We thought about getting married here but the wife wanted an outside wedding and you can't do that in the UK, plus the weather made it unpredictable.

...plus the wife is american

Anyway, 35 degrees in the bright blue phoenix sky with a light breeze coming off the mountains, perfect. Some things the UK is good for, some things its not

Hope it all goes great :cool: