sposisenzapose - wedding paperwork and legal obligations

Useful informations

Here you will find some useful advices about weddings. Find out how easy is to plan your wedding without making any mistake!

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• Wedding paperwok
• The church
• The wedding reception
• The weddding photographer
• Wedding participations
• Wedding keep-sakes
• Wedding dress
• Wedding accessories
• Bridal hairstyles
• Wedding jewels
• Wedding car
• Wedding flowers
• Wedding list
• The honeymoon
• Wedding schedule
• Other advices on the wedding day and wedding planning

wedding paperwork

Even if it's demanding and boring, preparing legal documents for your wedding is necessary to ensure leagality to the wedding itself. Thanks to autocertificaton (Bassanini law, February 23rd 1999) obtaining wedding documents it's easier and faster than before.

Upon deciding the wedding date and choosing a religious ceremony (officially recognized) or civil marriage you can proceed by requesting the legal consent and produce wedding banns. Banns are legal documents containing anagraphic data for the bride and groom , their job occupations and address along with the indication of the place where they intend to marry. Banns state the wish of the couple to marry so that anyone has the possibility to oppose.

Civil wedding

The first thing to do is to go the wedding office at the town hall where the bride or groom lives and take an appointment for the agreement *. It's possible to delegate to another person (friend or family) and give him our identity documents, tax codes, and delegation papers.

The municipality will set the date of the agreement * and banns posting date. It's possible to delegate a friend or family to sign for us the agreement and request the publications. In this case too we must provide the delegate our identity documents and a signed delegation paper.

To proceed with posting of banns some documents available at your municipality are necessary. one such document is the "contestuale cumulativo" certificate that sums the informations about the couple. Another documents is a questionnaire you will fill with additional information by stating where you are going to live after the wedding, wether you are adult and if you were married before or have children. By filling up all the paperwork you should obtain a coupon that you will use to claim your "nulla osta" (no impediment to) paper.

Posting of banns, at the town hall, takes place over two consecutive Sundays. The banns stay posted for eight days. After that time you will claim your 'nulla osta' authorizing the wedding, showing the given coupon.

You will bring the 'nulla osta' to the 'civil state office' at the municipality hosting the wedding. The Wedding must be celebrated withing six months from the 'nulla osta' release. If more than six months pass it will be necessary reiterate the whole procedure

religious wedding

A religious wedding requires both religious and civil paperwork.

You must go to the officiant and decide upon what church you will marry in and the date of the ceremony. Then you will go to the town hall and request all the necessary paperwork. The following documents are required for a religious wedding:

1. Certificate of Baptism
2. Certificate of First Comunion
3. Certificate of Confirmation
4. Letter from your Parish Priest, stating that you have fulfilled all PreCana course (Premarital course)

The certificates are usually held in the church you recived your baptism, should not this be the case to retrieve your certificate visit the church where you received the sacrament. If you decide to marry in the church where the baptism took place tha parish priest will take care of retrieving the appropriate documentation.

The priest will also need the civil paperwork. You must obtain and give your parish priest the following documents:

1. contestual certificate with your data (you obtaing this certificate at the town hall)
2. posting of banns certificate (obtain this certificate at the town hall that will post your banns)

It will be your parish priest that will tell you when and how to present these documents.

All the religious deeds are to be fulfilled in person and cannot be delegated. The parish priest will present us a questionnaire that the 'Sacra Rota' will be able to use should the marriage be dissoluted.

The parish priest will compile the request of religious posting banns. These banns will be posted in the marriage's, groom's and bride's church at least for eight days betweend two consecutive Sundays. After this period the fulfillment certificate of posting banns can be obtained ad brought to the church you will marry in. This certificate does not have an expiration date.

The couple will be married under separate ownership of assets only if they do so declare during the signing of the wedding act.

These are the legal requirements for a wedding in Italy:

Both participants must be eighteen years old. The legal age can be loweret to sixteen it the appropriate conditions are met.

Both participants must be in their right mind.

Both participants must not be married or have any civil obligation for a previous wedding.

The participants should not be family related

Marriage between a person that has been condemned for homicide or attempted homicide and the spose of the person against whom the crime has been committed is forbidden.

If a previous wedding has been dissoluted the bride should wait 300 days or the ending of civil effects of the previous act before she can marry againg. It's not necessary to wait this time if:

1. the wedding has been dissoluted due to impotence of either one spouse
2. if the marriage has not been consumed
3. if the marriage has been dissoluted after three years of separation

Pre-Cana Course

Should you decide to marry under a religious rite. the Catholic Church provides pre-Cana courses (pre-marriage course). These courses are meant to prepare you to the Wedding and life as a married couple through a religious path of cathechism and evangelization meant at the discovery of faith in Christ and God's Church.

It's common practice to begin this path at least a year before the date of the marriage.

At the end of the course a certificate will be handed. This certificate is required to proceed the religious ceremony.

Other documents required for special needs

If the participants are less than 16 years old, a juvenile court authorization is required.

if the spouses have been married before and are divorced they need a whole copy of the previous wedding act along with the dissolution certificate. This certificate is released by the town hall court where the marriage has been celebrated upon "Procura della Repubblica" authorization .

If the spouses are foreing citizens a "no impediment to" certificate is required.The certificate is released by the consolate or embassy of the orgin country of the spouses.