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What Documents Do You Need for Your Wedding?

13 May 2021

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What Documents Do You Need for Your Wedding?

Your wedding day is undoubtedly a joyful, carefree celebration, but beforehand you must take care of several bureaucratic requirements. Most of these involve the papers you need to submit to either the church or the municipality, depending on where you choose to marry. Because the ceremony can be religious or civil, each option demands a different set of documents. Although the timelines vary, both processes move quickly if you already have the correct forms in hand.

Documents for a Religious Ceremony

A church wedding calls for a few more documents than a civil one. First, you’ll need a certificate proving you’ve completed a premarital course—a prerequisite for submitting your birth and residence certificates as a couple.

Next comes a second set of church-specific documents: certificates of baptism and confirmation; a Church freedom-to-marry certificate (stato libero ecclesiastico); and an ecclesiastical clearance (nulla osta) if you plan to marry outside your home parish. While the baptism and confirmation certificates show you’ve received those sacraments, the freedom-to-marry document proves you haven’t been married before in the Church, and the ecclesiastical clearance authorizes a wedding in another parish.

Finally, you must publish the marriage banns—official announcements confirming there are no objections to your union. These banns allow the parish priest to grant religious consent at the end of the ceremony. After the wedding, you receive an official marriage certificate, a copy of which the church forwards to the municipality where the ceremony took place.

Documents for a Civil Ceremony

The civil procedure is more streamlined. You’ll submit personal documents—including birth certificates, proof of residence, citizenship papers and a certificate of no impediment to marry—to the municipal civil status office. Once those are in order, you wait for your summons to appear at the town hall and take the marriage oath.

If one partner is divorced or widowed, you must also provide documents that prove that status. As with a church wedding, you then publish the civil marriage banns at the municipality.

How to Obtain the Documents

Whether you’re planning a religious or civil ceremony, start early. For a civil marriage, request your forms from the civil status office in the municipality where either of you resides—ideally at least two months before your chosen wedding date. For a church wedding, most documents are issued by the parish where you intend to marry, with the sole exception of the marriage certificate copy, which the parish will later send to the municipality.