What is a wedding in Italy: organization, cost, reviews

Organizing a wedding in Italy

Citizens of foreign countries can register their relationship on Italian territory either officially or symbolically.

The Italian authorities allow foreigners to marry not only in municipalities, but also in any chosen places, this can be:

romantic Venice,
passionate Verona,
enchanting Lake Como
magical medieval castles and palazzos.

It all depends on the wishes of the couple.

An important point: if the newlyweds want to officially legalize their relationship on Italian territory, then they need to know that a marriage certificate obtained from the Italian Municipality is recognized in the Russian Federation, as well as one issued in any Russian registry office.

This means that an official wedding in Italy has legal force in our country.

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Official wedding

To conduct an official wedding ceremony, you must provide a package of certain documents to the Russian Consulate in Italy to obtain a NULLa Osta al martimonio - “Marriage Permit”.

So, to enter into an official marriage in this country, future newlyweds must provide:

valid Russian and foreign passports;
birth certificates;
in the case of remarriage - a certificate of dissolution of the previous marriage or a document confirming the death of the previous spouse (death certificate or court decision);
certificates from the registry office stating that the future newlyweds are not burdened with other marriages;
In case of change of surname, a supporting document is also required.

The entire package of documents must be translated into Italian, certified by a notary and legalized by affixing a special stamp - an apostille. You can affix an apostille to documents at the civil registry office.

The next step is to get NULLa Osta.

A symbolic wedding is a celebration of love that does not tolerate cliches.

To do this, you need to make an appointment at the Russian consulate and come at the appointed time with prepared copies and originals of documents.

It is necessary to register with the consulate in advance, preferably several months in advance, only in this case the young people will be able to receive the coveted document in a timely manner.

Brides need to remember that remarriage in Italy is allowed only if more than three hundred days have passed since the woman’s previous marriage was dissolved.

Next, you will have to go to the municipality or commune where the wedding will take place to submit documents, and ten days after this, the wedding ceremony will finally be able to take place.

By booking your registration and wedding venue in advance, you will receive many benefits:

a wide selection of options to suit your budget;
fixed price, which is ensured by payment of a security deposit;
selection of the most affordable hotels.

After receiving a marriage registration certificate, it must be legalized in the prefecture by affixing an apostille.

If the newlyweds decide to relieve themselves of the burden of bureaucratic problems, then the best option would be to entrust all the documentation to an agency organizing weddings in Italy.

In this case, the couple is only required to transfer the necessary documents to the agency representative and issue a notarized power of attorney to conduct business.

Symbolic wedding

Wealthy spouses have the opportunity to once again experience the same trembling feelings as at the first mutual “Yes!”, and receive a blessing to continue their life path together if they decide to hold a wedding ceremony and receive a souvenir certificate.
A symbolic Italian ceremony is only possible upon presentation of an official marriage certificate.

Buy wedding rings in Italy

• Can you help me choose wedding rings in Italy? Can I rely on you in this matter?

We really love the company Unoaerre, it produces jewelry of medium-high level. But recently, more and more often, brides and grooms have begun to choose Damiani or Bvlgari - these are top-class Italian brands.

Wedding rings in Italy are made of 750 gold.

We advise newlyweds before purchasing, explain what types of Italian wedding rings are divided into, and help them make an informed choice.

If you don't know your size according to the Italian scale, we have special tools to convert the Russian scale to Italian and save you from making mistakes.

We provide all our brides and grooms with pleasant discounts on wedding rings made in Italy.

Feedback from newlyweds

We are sure that you will not be uninterested in the opinions of people who have already made each other happy in this wonderful country:

Young wife Marina about registering her marriage in the Capitol : “In this fabulous luxury, I felt not like a bride, but at least like an heir to the throne!”
Maria and Victor about their wedding in Venice : “Part of our soul is still there, in a beautiful country, fireworks of impressions, magnificent Italy. I still remember our dance on a small street, on St. Mark's Square, a crowd of people who gathered to catch a bouquet. The fabulous views of Venice stand before your eyes..."

Why register a marriage in Italy

Italy is a very beautiful, sophisticated and romantic European country that offers a wide variety of wedding venues.

The scenery for your wedding ceremony can be either ancient cities with their attractions or picturesque lakes with luxurious villas. A wedding in Italy can be held on the beach, on a palace terrace by the sea, among wine plantations or among green hills in the countryside. Italian law is lenient towards those wishing to get married on their land. It does not require prior residence. Many official formalities are settled before the wedding without the presence of the newlyweds. A marriage concluded in Italy is registered in the CIS countries according to a simplified procedure.

You will be able to see Rome, Venice, Florence, Verona, Milan, visit Lake Como or the island of Sicily, feel the unique Italian charm, enjoy luxurious wine and taste national gastronomic delights and feel the warm hospitality of the Italians. Landscapes that are striking in their beauty, many historical monuments, various works of art, famous Italian cuisine will give you extraordinary impressions and leave indelible memories of your wedding in Italy. But, of course, each city has its own atmosphere and characteristics.

Photo selection: “Wedding in Italy”

Look at these wonderful photos! Where else can you feel such a bewitching unity of two hearts and the surrounding romantic atmosphere?

Waiting for a bouquet

This is happiness

Official wedding in Rome

Kiss of love

Here is my hand and heart...

Oh Venice!

We did it!

Here she is!

Wedding

To conduct a wedding ceremony, newlyweds are required to provide:

marriage certificate,
baptismal certificates.

All these documents must be translated into Italian and properly legalized (with an apostille).

You can get married in the following temples:

in Orthodox,
Catholic,
orthodox.

You will be married in an Orthodox church, even if one of you is Catholic or Protestant.

The ceremony takes place in Russian in an Orthodox church, in Greek or Italian in others. The day before the wedding, the newlyweds must confess and listen to a sermon of grace (possibly with an interpreter).

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Bachelorette and bachelorette parties in Italy

An important part of the pre-wedding period are parties for future newlyweds who are saying goodbye to the last days of a carefree single life. In Italy, hen and stag parties are organized like this: friends take the groom (or bride) to a certain place and arrange a surprise for him or her, and for the groom it can be a really swashbuckling bachelor party in the spirit of the movie “The Hangover”, while for the bride more often In total, a more modest, albeit fun, dinner with friends is arranged. In both cases, as the British say, one cannot do without bittersweet, or “bitter joy,” the feeling that arises from the fact that life will soon change once and for all.

Organizing your own wedding

Is it possible to arrange a wedding here on your own?

If you are planning a modest ceremony for two or close relatives, without lush festivities and with minimal wishes, and one of the young people speaks Italian, then you can do without outside help.

There are wedding traditions in Italy:

Before the celebration, the groom should put a piece of iron in his pocket, which will protect him from evil spirits.
At the end of the festive evening, the newlyweds break their glasses: the more fragments, the longer your marriage will last.

But you need to know that Italians really don’t like to resolve issues by email or by phone, so several months before the wedding you will have to go to the place of the planned celebration, perhaps more than once.

What can become an obstacle to preparing for your wedding on your own:

the language barrier;
the impossibility of making frequent flights to organize a wedding;
the absence of a close friend or relative living here who can, on your instructions, make the necessary preparations for the wedding.

Then the best choice would be to hire a Russian wedding agency. Specialists can provide a choice of either a ready-made wedding package or an individual order.

It is advisable to organize preparations for the celebration in the following order:

Determining the number of guests . The newlyweds will be alone, surrounded by their closest relatives, or they will throw a magnificent banquet.
Venue for the wedding ceremony . Don’t forget that romantics from all over the world dream of getting married in Italy, so the most popular places (Juliet’s balcony, the Capitol, famous palazzos) need to be reserved in advance, sometimes a year before the upcoming wedding.
Carrying out professional photography and video shooting . Professional photography will bring you many wonderful memories in the future.
Wedding style . All wishes of the newlyweds, from boarding passes to the wedding cake, should be clear; there should be no vague “I want this, I don’t know what.”
Place of residence . Rooms must be booked for all guests, regardless of who pays for them: young people or the guests themselves. Wedding suits for the newlyweds and dresses for guests.
Search if necessary:
makeup artist,
hairdresser,
excursion guide,
car with driver,
transport for guests,
musicians,
florists.
Wedding invitations . Don't forget to prepare and send out personalized messages inviting you to your ceremony.

Italian wedding video

Watch the video of one of the wedding ceremonies and witness the unique joy and happiness of this young couple.

Wedding invitations

This topic deserves special attention.

Note! The state fee for painting in the municipality of Rome will cost 1,200 euros. And in any small town nearby - 36 euros.

According to the rules of etiquette, preliminary mailing of invitations is carried out by e-mail several months before the expected wedding date.

The letter must contain information:

about the wedding date,
about the place where it will be held (if not yet determined, then about the approximate place where it will take place),
at whose expense the flight and accommodation in Italy will be paid.

Such a preliminary invitation will help guests adjust their plans and prepare the necessary documents for the flight.

In the final version, the invitation card should say:

wedding date,
exact location,
minimum periods of residence in Italy (depending on the duration of the wedding celebrations),
have accommodation and air tickets been booked?

Advice from a couple

• Don't be afraid to trust your organizer. Be positive, small problems can always arise. The main thing is to have fun, and leave the problems to the professionals.
• Communicate with your makeup artist and listen to his advice on how to properly prepare your facial skin and hair for your wedding.
• It is very important that the photographer and videographer can win over and set up for shooting, because not all brides have experience in this, for many it is a huge stress.
• I wish everyone that the preparation for the wedding was easy and pleasant, because the bride should be happy and tender, and not tired and upset. She simply must enjoy a fabulous day with her chosen one. Why fabulous? Because we all want a little magic and a little fairy tale in our lives!

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Wedding cost: how much will the celebration cost?

You can find out how much a wedding costs and what budget you can expect by reading numerous reviews on the Internet and looking at ready-made proposals.
In addition, the scope of the celebration, and, accordingly, the prices of a wedding in Italy, just like in Russia, depend on the wild imagination and financial capabilities of the future spouses.

Russian agencies offer wedding packages in Italy starting from 2,500 euros. The upper limit is limited only by the imagination and budget of the young. A minimum set of services in the most popular places will cost from 3,000 euros.

The price of the packages includes:

work with documents,
organizing a wedding ceremony without frills.

Not taken into account:

living expenses,
flight,
celebration,
decorations,
Additional services.

How much does a wedding in Europe cost?

Elena Lisyanskaya, founder and art director of the wedding agency Oh, Wedding!, which specializes in destination weddings, shares the nuances of holding a wedding abroad.

—

Honey, let's have a wedding abroad! Masha looked at the prices on the Internet - it’s not expensive at all. Maybe even cheaper than celebrating in Moscow!

- And Vlad told me that all this is nonsense - your websites. He spent 3 million on his wedding in Portugal, and also took out a loan...

So what is a wedding abroad - a pipe dream or a reality available to everyone? Let's figure it out.

Before the euro appreciated, a wedding in Europe could actually be cheaper than in Moscow. Today the prices are equal, but a European wedding still outperforms a Moscow wedding in terms of emotions, beauty of the picture and impressions. A wedding abroad means picturesque nature, beautiful, unique places, an opportunity to completely immerse your guests in the story of your love and get truly unforgettable emotions from this day.

Yes, you can indeed find very low prices for a European wedding on the Internet. You just need to understand that a wedding for 1,500 euros is not a full-day celebration, but a symbolic ceremony on the seashore. With a registrar, an inexpensive photographer (and therefore photographs of questionable quality), standard music and an arch under which 100 more couples before you exchanged vows. In general, this is the usual template story.

But if we are talking about a full wedding day, then the price order is, of course, different.

Let's take a step-by-step look at organizing a wedding abroad. That wedding that will be remembered for a lifetime.

Decide whether you need official marriage registration abroad or not. In a number of countries you can officially register a marriage, which will also be valid in Russia. For example, in Greece, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus and a number of others. The cost of the official registration procedure is from 1200 euros, this amount includes fees and work on legalizing documents.

The second option, which newlyweds most often choose, is to officially register in Russia and hold a symbolic ceremony abroad.

Decide on the date and time of the wedding, check the weather at this time of year in the country of your choice.
Choose a wedding venue. Abroad, venues for ceremonies and banquets must be booked at least six months in advance, or better yet, a year in advance.
Select and agree on a menu for dinner.
Book all contractors: from photographers to technicians, coordinators and transfers. By the way, it is better to bring a photographer, videographer and presenter from Russia. For example, the photo and video work of European specialists is significantly inferior to the work of Russian photographers and videographers. In addition, the language barrier can seriously hinder the process. Imagine that you don’t understand what the photographer is explaining to you, and the idea of the shot breaks down. Or, for example, a videographer edits a wedding film without knowing Russian, and arranges the shots in the wrong order. It’s the same story with the presenter. Finding a presenter abroad, in our understanding, is almost impossible. In Europe it is more like an entertainer. In Europe they don’t know our traditions and generally organize a wedding day differently. Therefore... why unnecessary complications? Agree with a host from Russia and arrange for him to come to your European wedding.

Select a wedding planner and/or coordinator. It is very difficult to organize a wedding abroad on your own: each country has its own characteristics that you may not even know about.

Now let's move on to specific numbers and schematically present the costs for 3 types of weddings: a wedding for 50 people, a chamber wedding for 10 people and a wedding for two:

Wedding for 50 people

Official wedding ceremony - from 1200 to 5000 euros (depending on the venue). For example, in Italy, an official wedding ceremony can be held both in the municipality and in an ancient castle. The more beautiful, spectacular and popular the place for the ceremony, the greater the amount that must be included in this expense item.
Carrying out a symbolic ceremony (if you refused the official one) + renting a banquet area and dinner menu - from 7,000 euros. The cost of a banquet per person varies on average from 80 to 200 euros. It all depends on what place you choose for the banquet: an inexpensive restaurant in Greece or a villa in Italy.
The decor will cost you at least 3,000 euros. And this will indeed be a very modest wedding decoration: small floral arrangements for the guests’ tables, a symbolic arch and decoration for the bride and groom’s table. Therefore, it is better to count on 7,000 euros and above.
Photographer and videographer - from 1500 euros each (3000 euros). Remember our recommendation at the beginning of the article? Bring a Russian-speaking photographer and videographer with you - and you will be happy. And at the same time, good wedding photos and videos.
Technical support – from 1000 euros
Entertainment: presenter - from 1000 euros, cover band - from 1000 euros, artists (live musicians, guitarists) - from 300 euros. Total 2300 euros.
Logistics and transfer. This expense item can generally be put in first place, because transfer cannot be forgotten. Typically, logistics and transfer “eat up” about 20% of the entire wedding budget. So for a wedding of 50 people, you need to budget at least 5,000 euros for these expenses. This money will be spent on transferring guests from the airport and back, transferring the couple and guests on the wedding day, transferring contractors, and paying for flights for contractors from Russia.
Organization and coordination of a wedding - from 2500 euros. Let's be honest: it's hard to organize a wedding on your own, and a wedding for 50 people is almost impossible. Both the organizer and the coordinator will save you from unnecessary problems during the organizing process, so why should he refuse them?

Did you manage to add up all these amounts? According to these rough estimates, a wedding day in Europe for 50 people will cost from 25,000 euros, and this does not include the cost of flights, as well as accommodation for the couple, contractors, and guests before and after the wedding.

Chamber wedding for up to 10 people:

It seems that it should cost much less than a large-scale celebration for 50 people, but... this is not entirely true. After all, some expense items remain the same, regardless of the number of guests at the wedding: for example, a photographer, videographer, host, the cost of an official ceremony - their cost will be the same for a wedding of any size. But let's count in order:

Official wedding ceremony - from 1200 euros
Symbolic wedding ceremony (rental of venue, furniture, registrar, sound) - from 3000 euros
Wedding dinner in a separate hall/space (rent + dinner menu) – from 2000 euros
Decor – from 1000 euros
Photographer and videographer – from 1500 euros each (3000 euros)
Technical support - from 500 euros
Entertainment - DJ - from 300 euros, live music - from 500 euros
Logistics and transfer 20% of the total budget - from 1000 euros
Organization and coordination - from 1500
Accommodation for guests 1 night - from 1000 euros

As a result, we get an amount of 10,000 euros, but it is better to count on 15,000 euros.

And finally, a wedding for two:

Official wedding ceremony - from 1200 euros
Symbolic wedding ceremony (venue rental, arch, registrar) - from 2000 euros
Wedding dinner in a separate hall/space (rent + dinner menu) – from 400 euros
Dinner decor - from 500 euros
Photographer and videographer – from 1500 euros each (3000 euros)
Technical support - from 500 euros
entertainment - DJ - from 300 euros, live music - from 500 euros
Logistics and transfer 20% of the total budget - from 700 euros
Organization and coordination - from 1500

The total is 7000-8000 euros for a holiday for two. And this amount does not include the price of flights and accommodation.

Which wedding to choose is up to you, but let it be truly beautiful and unforgettable!

If you are just planning your celebration, check out the work of Oh, Wedding at the link - you will also want to celebrate your wedding in Europe!