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Our (possible) wedding near La Souterraine


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Myself and my intended are due to move out to our house near La Souterraine next summer. We would love to get married in our town and were wondering if anyone (especially those of you who are already living there) has any advice on how easy or difficult this may be. We popped into the Mayor's office the last time we were over (September) and the lady in the office told us that it would be easier to arrange 'once we were living there permanently). I'm beginning to feel that the beaurocracy will be a bit of a nightmare but we'd still like to try. The date of the wedding would be Sat. 9th July 2005. We realise that we have to have the ceremony in the Mayor's office (of our own town). We don't want a religious ceremony. Ideally, I'd love to get married in the evening and then have food, dancing. I'd be really grateful if anyone could offer any advice, i.e. how to go about arranging the ceremony, how much notice we have to give, what typically is eaten at a typical French wedding, is there dancing??? Has anyone been to a French wedding? Thanks, so much, in advance. Ann
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LAST EDITED ON 07-Jan-04 AT 05:26 PM (GMT)

Your Mairie should give you a list of paperwork to provide:
Here's the list we had from our Mairie:

Birth certificates translated into French
Divorce papers translated into French
Certificate of custom - this you get from the UK embassy in Paris (tel ; 01 44 51 31 00)
Previous marriage certificates translated into french
certificat de sante - from a french doctor basically a blood test for both of you - here they didn't charge for the test for marriage - be warned it will probably include an aids test, but you aren't always told until you get the results!
EDF bill (as always) as proof of residence

The Embassy also wanted
2 application forms - they send them to you
certified copies of passports, birth certificates and divorce documents
huge amounts of money - we paid nearly 800 francs (7 years ago)

Mairie didn't charge for anything and also gave us presents from the commune.

We had to have at least 2 witnesses but had 4 and they all had to sign all the papers in your dossier.

I think the whole thing took about 3 months to organise; but that included august when nothing happens; from memory at no time were we asked for our CDS.
I also know of the daughter of an aquaintance of ours who married here - she wasn't resident with a CDS, no EDF bill etc so it is possible; best to check at the Mairie.
Suze

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  • 1 month later...
Ann
Message in your private in-box



>Myself and my intended are due
>to move out to our
>house near La Souterraine next
>summer. We would love
>to get married in our
>town and were wondering if
>anyone (especially those of you
>who are already living there)
>has any advice on how
>easy or difficult this may
>be. We popped into
>the Mayor's office the last
>time we were over (September)
>and the lady in the
>office told us that it
>would be easier to arrange
>'once we were living there
>permanently). I'm beginning to
>feel that the beaurocracy will
>be a bit of a
>nightmare but we'd still like
>to try. The date
>of the wedding would be
>Sat. 9th July 2005.
>We realise that we have
>to have the ceremony in
>the Mayor's office (of our
>own town). We don't
>want a religious ceremony.
>Ideally, I'd love to get
>married in the evening and
>then have food, dancing.
>I'd be really grateful if
>anyone could offer any advice,
>i.e. how to go about
>arranging the ceremony, how much
>notice we have to give,
>what typically is eaten at
>a typical French wedding, is
>there dancing??? Has anyone
>been to a French wedding?
> Thanks, so much, in
>advance. Ann


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  • 3 months later...
Hello,
My husband and I got married in France September 2002. Although there were plenty of hassles getting everything together, it was such a personal and memorable day that it was well worth it. The only thing if you do go ahead in France is to watch out for the marital contract/regime, which can have huge repercussions in relation to inheritance, tax on death, etc. (not a nice subject, admittedly, but essential) with regard to purchasing property (we've just changed our regime, little knowing when we got married we'd be moving to France!).
I wrote a piece on our trials and tribulations and everything we needed. Let me know if you're interested and I can send it to you.
Hope you can make it to France.

Cathy
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