Why Italy

What makes it simpler

No residency requirement. Couples from abroad can marry at any comune (the local council) in Italy.

No notice period for non-residents. Your declaration before the registrar is usually a day or two before the wedding, and then you can marry.

A few days in Italy. The legal part needs you in the country for the declaration and the ceremony. British and Irish couples do everything else from home; American couples have one consulate appointment in Italy in the wedding week.

Recognised at home. The UK, Ireland and the US recognise a marriage validly made under Italian law, with nothing to register afterwards.

How it compares

The paperwork from home is much the same wherever you marry abroad. The difference is in each country's own rules.

• Spain A civil wedding is handled by the civil registry where one partner is domiciled, so one of you has to live there.
• France You marry in the commune where one of you, or a parent, lives or has lived for at least a month, with a public notice of the wedding displayed for ten days first.
• Portugal Non-residents can marry, with the file opened at least a month before the wedding and sworn Portuguese translations.
• Greece Non-residents can marry, with official Greek translations and, in many municipalities, a notice of the wedding in a local newspaper.

The real thing

A legal ceremony is the marriage, made in front of the registrar, entered in the Italian register and recognised at home. A symbolic ceremony celebrates a marriage made somewhere else. In Italy you can have the real one.

Comuni open some of their finest buildings to it

Italian comuni publish fees for couples from elsewhere, open historic buildings and courtyards to their ceremonies, and in some cases market them to couples from abroad on pages of their own.

Last checked 8 October 2026.

How the legal process works