Search Q&A
To get married in Belgium or in England/UK?
Hi! My fiancée and I are newly engaged and trying to find out if we should get married in England (where I am from) or in Belgium (where he is from). Any advice?!
Has anyone else been in this situation and can offer suggestions, pros/cons about either option?
As far as I can tell the key issues are that in Belgium the actual marriage would have to be in Dutch (our commune is one of those sticklers that won't deal with any other language) which I don't understand. But planning a wedding from another country (in English which is the language my fiancée and I communicate in!) might prove tricky.
But from what I can gather the paperwork hoops they put you through here seem far more elaborate than might be the case in England.
At a loss as to how to make this decision! Help!
Ah, now that is funny. After looking to marry in Belgium when we just arrived, faced with a wall of Dutch only and demands for documents that did not exist in our country, we went to Gretna Green.
And I should add, it was great fun. ;-)
Ms. C, nevermind grumpy J-
J, we all understand we've chosen to be here- falling in love doesn't have just one language- and neither does Belgium :-) And I didn't hear any complaints, but a polite request for advice.
Anywho- I suppose it seems it might be easier for you to marry in England, or another option would be to request a translator. Speak to the commune about such an option. You could also make a list of pros and cons- such as paperwork, need for translation of documents, etc..and make the decision after some careful thought
Good luck and CONGRATULATIONS
-themissus
Congratulation!
However, I don't understand the problem. Your financée is from Belgium and you are living in a Flemish commune.
Doesn't he speak Dutch and can't he take care of the local administration?
To get married in England requires a period of residence immediately prior to the ceremony - I think currently 3 weeks.
We got married in Flanders. At that time my understanding of Dutch was limited but it was not a problem. We could have had an interpreter had we chosen and I guess that applies to you as well.
I suspect that you are seeing a major problem where only a minor one exists. You want to get married; so long as the gemeente staff are happy to marry you, get married here.
First off, congrats.
Naturally it will be easier in the UK but there are small pros and cons to doing this in either country. The good news is that you can change your country "regime" when ever you like. So, relax, it doesn't really matter. Enjoy the day.
We got married in a Brussels gemeente in Dutch and it was very simple (we are both non-Belgians):
1. Go to the gemeente and tell them you want to marry, they open a file and normal you can indicate there and then what date / time you want.
Do this at least 3 months before you want to marry.
2. You need to provide a certified translation of your UK birth certificate (no other documents were required from me).
If you don't understand Dutch (although I suspect your partner does being Belgian), then you might want to ask for an interpreter for both you and the guests.
To be honest, the wedding service is very simple and not like I have seen in UK and other countries. For a start, there is no listen and repeat, no sentences you need to say out loud. The schepen (the person who does the marriage) will do a short intro, then will read the legal statement at which point you declare 'ja'. That's it. Very simple and no fuss. Our marriage took 10 mins.
You will need to obtain a NEW copy of your UK birth certificate (from the Council of the area where the birth was registered - they can usually be ordered online) and have a certified translation made of that.
My fiance and I are both British but living here and when we got engaged last year faced exactly the same dilemma as you- get spliced here in Brussels or in the UK.
In the end we went for the UK due to (1) a short reminder of how ugly our commune building is and (2) how many of our guests and family would be coming from abroad and would need putting up, transportation etc. So we chose a hotel in the UK for the ceremony, the meal, the party which fixed both of those issues.
If you do decide to get married in the UK, you will need to be able to prove residence there for a period of at least 7 days (not 3 weeks as listed above) so we went over at Christmas, stayed with the inlaws and then had to go to the registrar's office with paperwork from them confirming we had lived with them for a period of days. We also had to show their council tax bill and took our Eurostar tickets as confirmation of how long we were in the UK for.
Organising a wedding wasn't that bad, actually I have to say. By going for a hotel as a venue many of them these days do packages meaning there's not much you have to organise yourself.
Good luck with whatever you decide and CONGRATULATIONS!
https://www.gov.uk/marriages-civil-partnerships/giving-notice-at-your-lo...
BTW... no need to get a new copy of your birth certificate. Your original one (short or long form) are fine. Don't waste money ordering a new one.
And following new legislation, the residency period in England is now 28 days.
