Eloping? Any advice for eloping in Italy?

[Nb1g]

me and my fiancé have decided to drop the big wedding and elope to Italy.
any advice from those that have eloped or eloped in Italy?
did you use a elopement package?

any advice would be great 😊

No bit a Wedding in Italy sounds wonderful. I'm not sure I could have eloped though, I loved having our family and friends there.

We wanted the stress off us 😊 each to their own x

I’m afraid I don’t know the details of why it was tricky but when my sister got married to an Italian man they did the legal but in the UK then a religious ceremony and the party in Italy. For some reason (even with an Italian as the groom) it was a hassle to get the paperwork sorted. Maybe they had to be resident in the town or something.

Sorry didn't mean it to come across the way it did. Agree with the PP though, I'd look at the legalities pretty closely. It might be easier to get married locally to you and then have a Honeymoon in Italy? It is that very practical and boring?

My deceased mother was so sad that my brother and his wife eloped. I viewed it as cruel, really.
Can you not invite those closest to you to a small ceremony and lunch at a small low key venue. Churches are often available in lovely towns. Then party away in Italy.

This post isn’t about whether I should elope or not, I have my reasons. I would just like some advice on eloping in Italy that’s all.

I'd be wary of getting married (the actual legal bit) in a foreign country, especially one with non-English language.

Paperwork: you'd need to provide paperwork in advance of your identity etc, translated into Italian. I know of someone who married in a different country (not Italy) and they had to provide UK paperwork to show that they weren't already married and pay to have it formally translated into the local language.

Divorce law: if you were to divorce, you can do it in the UK but again there's the hassle of translating documents. Although if the marriage had broken down that much you probably wouldn't care! From what I've read it seems fairly straightforward but I'd still be wary and don't take for granted that you would divorce in the UK - I know of one couple who married in Portugal and I suspect the reason was because one of them wanted to protect their assets (for children of a previous marriage) and Portuguese divorce law is different to UK law and more advantageous in that scenario.

God, I hope your mum didn't voice this, or worse, you tell them they were cruel. The wedding isn't about your mum, it's about the couple.

Italy sounds lovely OP but I would check the legals and have a back up plan if needed. If you decide to do a quick, no fuss registrar wedding in the UK, I'll be a witness for you

There’s a lot of paperwork involved, including a sworn statement that you are both free to marry from the British embassy called “nulla osta”. Due to DH (Italian) working in the military sector I also got called up for a criminal investigation by the Carabinieri. Mata Hari I am not!

One British couple I knew lived in the area for 3 months in order to have their wedding ceremony there.
Unless you speak the language well and are happy to be sent on wild goose chases by civil servants, I’d use an agency or just have a party in Italy.
Also to avoid tricky divorce procedures- you never know…

I'd have preferred to elope.

Italy is not the easiest to elope too, though, unless one of you is Italian. The simplest way by far will be to do the legal part here and elope for the ceremony, but that's not quite the same, especially for an elopement.

I believe that Greece is easier but have no personal experience.

Even if one of you is Italian it’s hard without being resident!

I eloped and got married in Italy , no regrets at all! Used https://gettingmarriedinitaly.com/ pls feel free to contact directly and can share more. Don’t want to our myself with details on location

Sorry the website no longer looks the same??? I had all the help with venue and processes and it was straightforward

Thank you that’s great. It’s nice to hear that’s it’s straight forward from someone that’s actually done it 😊 tbh admin is not an issue for me and my partner it’s only as hard as you make it

We eloped due to family issues, but not to Italy. It was 20 years ago, absolutely zero regrets. We booked through a specialist travel agent and this was pretty much before the internet really kicked off.
We picked a country based on the easiest and most convenient at the time for us. Also the closest to our honeymoon destination, which was different due to marriages for foreigners not legal there.
It was so stress free, we just turned up and everything was organised. We were also able to choose things like flowers, menu, colour scheme, cake and all extras a few days before etc. Would definitely do it all again! It also turned out a lot cheaper!

You can always have a party when you get back. Good luck and happy married life!

tbh admin is not an issue for me and my partner it’s only as hard as you make it

Correction:
In Italy it’s only as hard as THEY make it!

It’s possible to do so don’t see an issue 😂

I've no idea how complicated or not it is, OP, but we attended a (small to medium sized) wedding by Brits in Italy last year and it was fabulous. They had a package, so were guided through it from start to finish and the man who did it all for them took them with their witnesses to the registry place to do the legal bit and they had a "ceremony" conducted by him in front of us all on the next day, with party. You'll do your research and it's clearly do-able!

Good luck - take no notice of people trying to persuade you to do otherwise. I've had a an 'elopement' ceremony in an English register office with 2 mates as witnesses when I married a bloke and a civil partnership with 3 guests/witnesses when I married my female partner. I hated the idea of doing otherwise.

Be extremely hard wihout being resident plus are you eu citizens? You cannot just get married in Italy/Spain wherever without an enormous amount of preparaion.

Are you Catholic?
Do you speak Italian?

It seems to vary place to place - certainly my sister couldn’t get married in Italy (in her DH’s home village) because they weren’t resident. They had a lovely ceremony in a church there, really stunning, but it wasn’t a legal wedding.

Friends who ‘married’ in Italy didn’t actually marry there, they had to do it at the registry office here first so not quite an elopement.

we eloped - we researched where we could get married that was actually recognised in the uk too so we didn’t have to register here as well, mostly was only Gibraltar or the USA. We ended up stuck between San Francisco and Las Vegas, chose vegas in the end as we found a beautiful rooftop gazebo which was just perfect for us.

You've got a fucking cheek.