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Weddings in France


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Hi all,

We are getting married here in France in September and I'm trying to find out what the process is in terms of the actual ceremony.  We don't speak much French but is the ceremony like it is in the UK with all the 'I do's' etc...do we need to participate as such or is it a paperwork exercise?

Do we need a translator?!

Many thanks!

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We tried this in '05. The paperwork is huge. Official translations of birth and divorce certificates that are less than 3 months old, paperwork from the British Embassy and more. Not trying to put you off, but we ended up going back to the UK to tie the knot.

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Oh God I hope we don't have that problem!

We've just been asked for the usual paperwork with no mention of the British Embassy but just an official translation of birth certificates!

Better take everything down in the next few weeks to be checked then....

Thanks!

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Thanks for that.  Have contacted the Embassy as it mentions something about a 'certificat de coutume'.  They said if the Mairie hasn't asked for it they probably don't want it, result.  Medicals all done, just waiting for translation of birth certificates....fingers crossed.

Thanks again!

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Gemma, be careful, the certificate from the embassy is required. With us the Marie realised this at the last minute, which delayed everything and we had to put guests from the UK off. That meant that the translations were over three months old and would have to be done again. That was why we postponed it and went back to the UK in the end.

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Our daughter was married here in France two weeks ago, the culmination of nearly 18 months of planning and untangling endless red tape.  When I get my breath back I will do a blog and post it on the forum as there are a lot of things which emerge during the course of preparations which no one seems to have prepared for or to have covered.  I assume at least one of you is, or has been accepted as, residents of the commune where you are to be married and that you have talked to the Maire and the secretary at the mairie about the requirements.  My daughter was issued by the Maire with a booklet which laid down all the documents which are needed to satisfy the requirements so that the banns can be called.  These included the certificat de coutume (obtainable from the British consulate in Paris, and one each needed if both parties are not French) and the certificat de celibacy (which is replaced by a document you can print off the web from the British Embassy website which simply states no such certificate exists in the UK). The requirements are set at a national level so if you haven’t been asked for anything on the list it will probably crop up at a date very inconveniently close to the wedding, as Bob 24 found out to his cost.

The marital dossier which was handed over in time to allow the calling of the banns (this varies but generally at least 6 weeks)  had also to include the less-than-3-months-old birth certificates, translated by a ‘traducteur expert’ and stamped accordingly, copies of the relevant passport pages of the chosen witnesses with all their details on the appropriate forms, various other forms giving details of the bride and groom and their families, attestations by the bride and groom, and the all-important medical certificates.  If your blood group and immunity tests have been done then the doctor has to sign your certificates saying he has seen the test results – but must do so no more than three months ahead of the wedding.  

Regarding the ceremony, it is quite simple and straightforward but I think you would certainly need a translator unless your French is very good. We had a bilingual friend who did a simultaneous translation with the Mayor waiting for him to translate one paragraph before she proceeded to the next.  When it came to the questions about ‘will you take this man to be your husband etc’ both the bride and groom answered the French version with ‘oui’ and the English version with ‘yes’.  They had asked if they could have an exchange of rings included at the end of the ceremony and this was done.  The ceremony concluded with a lot of signing – the bridal couple, the parents of the bride, the parents of the groom, and the chosen witnesses.  The mothers of both bride and groom were surprised to see that they were listed under their maiden names but apparently this is customary – we signed our usual signatures in the official book.  Our ceremony took place in the council chamber with chairs around the desk for the main participants with everyone else standing around the sides of the room.   

We are still in the throes of sorting out the various certificates, translations etc needed for my daughter to change her name in the UK: when you get to that stage by all means post again and I will give you the benefit of our experiences.

I can honestly say that had I known what was involved I would not have been quite so keen to organise everything and there were times when I wondered if we had bitten off more than we could chew.  If you live in the UK then the option of getting married there and having the celebrations and any religious element out here is a far simpler proposition but if you go ahead then I wish you good luck and hope it all goes smoothly.

Val

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Hi Val,

Thanks so much for that.  We've got all the paperwork sorted (waiting for birth certificate translations) except for the certificat de coutume which no one has mentioned to us, including the Embassy...thank God I came here!!!

Do you know how long it takes to get this sorted and if it's necessary to send original birth certificates & passports.  Is a bit difficult now with going back and forth to the UK!

Thanks again for your help.

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As for actually getting married in France, Bob T, we found it very simple, and the paperwork certainly wasn't "huge", nor did we need anything from the British Embassy.

Gemma, enjoy your special day!

 

 

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Thanks Mini-Mum!

Well I've spoken to the Embassy again and they've said that the Mairie 'may' require it and just to ask.  Once I've got all my bits together I will take what I have down there and ask him if he needs this other form and get them to check everything is in order and then hopefully that's it!  She said sometimes they just marry you and get anything else they need off you after you're married, don't want to chance it though :-)

Thanks again!

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I think the Certificat de Coutume can take 2-3 weeks but the Embassy is very helpful; if you need it done quicker than that, mark the envelope 'urgent' and enclose a covering letter saying why it's required quickly.  It sounds as if you have left yourselves plenty of time to get everything done, though. Certified copies of birth certificates and of the relevant pages of passports are acceptable - these can be done by a solicitor in the UK or by a notaire in France.  I can't remember if any other documents had to be sent along with the application forms but it is all listed under the 'marriage' section on the embassy website - don't forget it's a separate application for each of you if you're not French (and a separate fee!) though I sent off our two together so they could be returned in the same prepaid recorded delivery envelope.

Obviously some people posting have found it very easy and straightforward getting married in France and others haven't.  I'm sure it is much easier if both the bride and groom are full time residents here, and maybe even if they are both part-time residents.  It is more difficult, I think, if (as in our case) just the parents (of one of them) are residents, as whether or not this qualifies the child to be married in the commune is down to the mayor's interpretation of the rules.  And from then on a lot depends on how clued up or confident your Mairie is.  As this was very much a first for them they were incredibly helpful but where there were any doubts or gaps in their knowledge they stuck to the book like glue to be on the safe side.  Someone who works in the French civil service also told me that along with so many other things (banking checks to tackle money laundering, and extra security at airports, for example) the paperwork for a marriage is subject to much greater scrutiny than it used to be.

It sounds a good idea to take your paperwork down to the Mairie and get it checked ahead of time, to put your mind at ease if nothing else.  I'm sure you will have a very special day, made all the more special because it is in France.  It will be a long time before I forget our lovely lady Maire concentrating her very hardest to get her tongue round 'Keighley' and 'Haworth'!

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We got married here 4 years ago next Thursday! We found it really simple (we are both english and lived here in France). We didn't need a cert de coutume, just official translations of birth certs and the originals (which you don't get back by the way), copies of our witnesses passports, doctors certs and proof that we lived in the commune. Actually we didn't live in that commune but a letter from the harbourmaster saying that we lived on a boat in his port seemed to suffice!

As for the ceremony, the mairie printed off what they say for us in advance and we got it translated, and somone read out the english version in the ceremony. Our only input was to say "oui" and at the end the maire asked us if we had rings to exchange, when we said yes he said "well go on then"! My only criticism is taht it wasn't very romantic: no vows, no mention of love or cherish, all to do with shared finances and moral responsibility for furture children if i remember rightly! It only lasted about 10 - 15mins. Also, there were only chairs for the bride and groom and the maire and they expected us just to arrive altogether (I guess cos most people go there after the fancy church bit). We didn't get married in church so we decided that the groom would get there first and he and the best man got everyone to stand so that there was kind of an aisle so that I could arrive traditionally late and make an entrance with my bridesmaids! The locals found that very amusing!

Congratulations and good luck!

suzi

www.patiras.com/trinite.htm

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Well, we've taken all our documents to the Mairie, translated birth certificates and we're good to go!  All we're waiting for is the Certificat de Coutume and that's that!  So much easier than we thought it would be so can now cancel the registry office in the UK :o)

Thanks for all your help!

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All done!  Certificat de Coutume came in a record few days...posted the cheque Friday and received the paperword Wednesday!  Now we have everything and although it cost more than doing it in the UK it was very simple!

Thanks for all your help!

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  • 4 months later...

Hiya,

The wedding went without a hitch!  The whole process was much easier than anticipated.  We just went to the Mairie, who gave us forms to fill out and told us what documents we needed.  There was nothing out of the ordinary needed and what we needed to get translated we did.  It probably would have been cheaper to do a registry office job in the UK then come back out but we didn't.  It was just the cost of blood tests, translations and acquisition of documents that suprised us.

Turned up on the day and the whole process took about 20 minutes and that was that!  Great fun!

We then had the traditional wedding the day after in Couiza and it was everything we could have wished for!

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