Burocracy, that’s amore!

Emily+Peter: a Jewish wedding in Amalfi

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Hi girls,

The wedding season has started so we have less time to post (sorry!), but I’ve got a nice real wedding story to end this busy week with: a Jewish wedding in Amalfi!
I’m pretty curious about everything that has something to do with wedding paperwork and burocracy and I realized that I’ve never written anything about Jewish wedding ceremonies in Italy.

That’s the story of Emily and Peter, both from US, and of their wonderful wedding captured by Claudia and Antonella Francese Photographers (thanks for submitting your pictures!).
I will let Emily talk about the wedding cerimony procedure, but before that have a look at these inspiring pictures! I love the location (Villa Santa Maria) and the bride’s tiaras!

bride wedding dress amalfi

bride preparation wedding amalfi

bride wedding amalfi

groom-wedding-amalfi

jewish-wedding-amalfi

wedding-amalfi-landscape
Their wedding was at first sight pretty simple, but their celebration was pretty long because it was celebrated in hebrew language and then in English and Italian (Peter’s relatives are from Amalfi)

Pete and I had a symbolic religious ceremony. In Italy, for a Jewish wedding to be recognized, you have to get married inside a synagogue (just like for a catholic ceremony you have to get married inside a church).
In Italy the Jewish synagogues are Orthodox. I am a reform Jew and Pete is Catholic so we could not get married inside a synagogue. There is no procedure for having an outdoor symbolic religious ceremony. You only have to organize it with your religious officiant.
We started planning our wedding about 12 months in advance. I had to book the villa, find a photographer, DJ, catering etc.
We had the symbolic religious ceremony at the Villa and then we had a “civil” ceremony in Amalfi to get the marriage license. There was a lot of paperwork to have the civil ceremony and get the marriage license in Italy.

Picture courtesy of Antonella and Claudia Francese Photography
Venue Villa Santa Maria in Amalfi
Celebrant: Rabbi Barbara Aiello

Posted in Beach weddings, Burocracy, that's amore!, Real Weddings, South | 1 Comment »

A symbolic cerimony before going to bed

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

It’s quite late.
I’m at home ready to go to bed so that it will sooner be Fridayyy! Yess!
I’ve got a busy week-end ahead  - 2 hours drive to reach Hull to see MrB and and also for a nice dinner with friends tomorrow night. Then Saturday I will meet my lovely couple in order to check a few details for their wedding in Tuscany. Most of the suppliers have been choosen, so it will be nice start talking about flowers and decorations in front of a cup of tea!

Before that, I want to leave you with the last post of the week which is about symbolic weddings.

A few days ago we received an enquiry from Saffron, a bride-to-be fron the UK who is going to get married in Italy this year. She was planning to have a symbolic cerimony and she asked us to recommend a registrar/celebrant for that day.

So we explained her symbolic weddings are no legally binding and there is no need for an official celebrant/registrar. The beauty of a symbolic wedding is that you don’t have to be in a licensed location (that’s the case of civil wedding) and you also have the freedom to personalize the ceremony as much as you want.

Your ceremony could be performed by one of your family member or friends participating to the wedding (easier way!), or you can find someone else to do that.

As simple as that. And now shoes off (my tango ones) and bed time!
See you next week!

Tango shoes

Posted in All you need is love, Burocracy, that's amore! | No Comments »

Getting married in Italy for British citizens -Part II

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Hi loves,

Remember the last article we wrote about the first legal steps your future husband and you need to take into account while planning your civil wedding ceremony in Italy.

Yes, you’re now married! But what happens next?! You will certainly wonder what kind of official paper will make your marriage valid without you having to marry again overseas!

Here we are with a short list telling you what happens after the civil ceremony is performed.

> Once the ceremony has been performed you will be issued with a marriage certificate. You must then provide the Consular Officer in the town where the marriage was performed with a certified copy of the marriage certificate, having been duly authenticated by the local authority.

> You will also need to provide a translation of the marriage certificate in English.

> The document can then be forwarded on your request to the General Registrar Office in the UK.

Be aware that your marriage WILL NOT be registered in the UK, your marriage certificate will merely be deposited for their records, and consequently your original marriage certificate will not be returned to you. This in no way makes your marriage invalid. Should you both need your marriage certificate in the future the General Register Office can issue you with a certificate, should the need arise.

Picture courtesy of EmozioInFoto

Posted in Burocracy, that's amore! | 4 Comments »

Getting married in Italy for British citizens – Part I

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Hello,

Let’s get back on track with burocracy…yes, we know you love it!
This week I want to tell you something more about the steps you need to consider if you are planning of having a civil wedding ceremony in Italy.

If your future husband and you are both resident in the UK and both British citizens, remember that:

> There is no requirement for a residency stay in Italy for getting married here

> You need to give notice of your marriage, to the Superintending Registrar, in your local district, where you live in the UK. You will need to wait then between 17 to 23 days whilst the banns are publicized. If there are no complications, the couple will be issued with a certificate of non-impediment, which is a document any Italian Registar office will need to allow you to get married in Italy. The certificate of non-impediment does not require translation into Italian or legislation by means of an Apostille (“legalizzazione della firma del signatario del document”)

> This document along with your basic documents and the first five pages of your passport must be sent to the British Consulate in the Italian city where you wish to marry

> Once the paperwork is with the Consulate it may only takes 3 -5 days to process

> A Nulla Osta is then issued which must be taken to the Anagrafe (Registry office) in order to book a date for the wedding. Then each city can ask for different formats to be filled in ( i.e a format through which general information about the couple are given)

Keep tuned with us as we would tell you in a next article what would happen once the ceremony is performed…

Picture courtesy of Danilo Maraschi

Posted in Burocracy, that's amore! | 1 Comment »

Choosing the town hall for your civil cerimony

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Hello,
I’m a little bit late with my weekly post, but I’ve managed to get one by the end of the week. So here we go with some stuff on Italian wedding burocracy (soft reading!).

If you want to get married in Italy you need to have your wedding celebrated by an official representative of the town hall of the place you choose to get married. Then you will have to book the day and pay a fee (which changes according to each town hall as well as to the day of the week you choose to get married).

Pordenone city hall

The Italian civil cerimony is usually held at the town hall, but in some cases town halls have got special permissions to have weddings celebrated in external places like ancient villas or castle where, most of the times, you can arrange your reception as well.

This is a solution which might be very handy if you have a lot of people coming from abroad and without their own car, but it could also be a little bit more expensive because the mayor (or one of his/her representatives) charges the couple more for asking him/her to go there.
So I would recommend to check with the town halls of the area you have chosen what are all the options and which one is more convenient to you!

By the way, the one in the picture is the Pordenone town hall, where Sylvie and Gian got married one year ago! Almost old memories if I think they are having a baby in two month time!

Picture courtesy of Enrico Facchinetti and Cosimo Barletta

Posted in Burocracy, that's amore! | No Comments »

How to get in touch with the town hall

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Good morning,

I don’t know you, but I’m counting the days for the week end already so I thought to write something useful while counting…
A few months ago we started a section on how to get married in Italy, which is basically about all the paperwork and burocracy you need to think of while planning your Italian wedding!

One of the first things you will need to do is to get in contact with the town hall – Comune in Italian language- where you will have your wedding celebrated, so that you can ask them about booking the day for your civil cerimony and all the required paperwork.
An attempt which might be as easy as to find a Fiat 500 with a Ferrari logo – not impossible though!

You can find all the Italian town hall websites just going on the official town halls’ website directory and typing the name of the one you are looking for on the search box (you will recognize a town hall website because it usually has the comune word in its url).

(more…)

Posted in Burocracy, that's amore! | No Comments »

Basics about a civil wedding ceremony in Italy

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Where shall we start with the description of the burocracy related to a marriage in Italy? There’s so much to say around certificate of non-impediment, nulla osta, civil code, interpreters, number of witnesses permitted that it’s indeed a true challenge to sum up the whole thing in some tens rows of a blog article.

Maybe a good way to start is to give you an idea of the way a civil ceremony is performed in Italy (by the way, this is a nice picture of Sylvie and Gianluca just outside the town hall, after the civil cerimony).

Italian civil weddings can be celebrated in hundreds of different places – romantic villas, medieval castles, ancient city halls, public gardens – with the only condition that those places are approved by the Italian authorities.

The ceremony takes around twenty minutes and it is performed in Italian either by the city mayor or by one of his/her civil officers.

In Italy, two witnesses are needed to sign all the legal paperwork (although it’s more and more common and fashionable to have four witnesses, but only two of them can sign the legal paperwork).

The civil ceremony consists in the combination of the lecture of fondamental civil codes articles and on the traditional marriage vows which we have translated into English and French. You can download the Italian-English lecture of fondamental civil codes articles and the Italian-French lecture of fondamental civil codes articles.  (more…)

Posted in Burocracy, that's amore! | 9 Comments »

Italian wedding burocracy…what a pain!

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

What worst than realizing a few days before your wedding abroad that your nulla osta has not been properly issued or that your marriage certificates are not completed?
These are the most popular bride-to-be nightmares, expecially among the brides  who had the crazy idea to get married in Italy! 

For this reason we have thought of a new section called Burocracy, that’s amore! which could be a discussion area on the subject…at least we hope none will end up screaming of like our two friends below!  


Italian burocracy is well-known for being a nightmare, including all sort of simple things which theoretically should be pretty easy to handle while plannig your marriage in Italy!

Over the next weeks we would like to illustrate a few real brides’ stories which have no pretention for being the exact response to what you may want to read, but at least they could be a good base for further discussion and questions! We hope you like the idea and you will follow us!

Picture courtesy of Jackie Baisa

Posted in Burocracy, that's amore! | 2 Comments »