Spain is a country full of joy, color, beautiful landscapes both inside and in the coastal area and spectacular venues to celebrate events. These are just some of the reasons why many foreign couples decide to celebrate their legal wedding in Spain.
If you find yourself in this situation, we know that sometimes it can be difficult to know all the options you have to celebrate your wedding in Spain, since you are full of doubts, processes and the amount of information you must collect. In this post we are going to review those possibilities and the different ways to celebrate a wedding in Spain. We will focus on the two great options you have:
1. Legal wedding in Spain
The first thing you should know is that you can celebrate your legal wedding in Spain, whether you want a civil wedding or a church wedding. However, it must have in mind that these processes can be extended over time, since the processing of the documentation usually takes months.
On one hand, the documentation you need for a civil wedding in Spain is:
- The birth certificate.
- The certificate of matrimonial capacity or civil status.
- The census certificate.
- In case one of the members is divorced, they must deliver the marriage certificate with registration of the divorce, as well as divorce sentence or the Certification according to article 39 of Regulation 2201/2003 for European sentences after 01/03/2001.
- In case one of the members is a widow/widower they must provide the certificate of the first marriage and death certificate of the spouse.
It is very important to remind that the documents that are not multilingual, must be legalized with the Apostille of the Hague or by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Spanish Diplomatic Representation in that country. These documents must be translated into Spanish by a translator recognized by the Ministry.
On the other hand, if you want to celebrate a religious wedding in Spain, you will have to request the matrimonial file with the following documents:
- Baptism certificates
- Photocopy of the DNI.
- Birth certificate. This certificate must be requested by the Civil Registry of the city where you were born.
- Census certificate
- Family book of your parents, or photocopy of the page where your names appear.
- Pre-marriage course certificate. This course is usually done the months before the wedding and in it a priest will prepare you for marriage as a couple.
- And finally, to request the marriage record you must be accompanied by two witnesses.
As we have said before, these procedures can take months and the documentation to be provided depends in many occasions on different aspects such as the nationality of the couple, the Church in which they are going to get married, the embassies or the latest legislation on this aspect. For more information about the procedures to celebrate a wedding in Spain, you can check the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2. Symbolic wedding in Spain
In addition to the option we have explained, to celebrate your dream wedding in Spain there are other alternative ways that, although are not strictly official, will allow you to celebrate your great day in the place of Spain you like the most.
You will only have to:
- Choose a date and book the venue for your wedding: as a beautiful beach or with sea views, a fairytale castle, surrounded by vineyards, etc.
- Set up a symbolic ceremony and design it to your liking.
Although you can celebrate a legal wedding in Spain, you also have the possibility to organize it in the place you want and without having to wait for months to complete all the procedures. You can configure your day as you like and celebrate the wedding which you have always dreamed with.
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