Mei

Hi. I'm an American living in the UK with my British partner. We will be spending two months in Marseille and are thinking of getting married at the end of our stay. I've done lots of googling and found info on the US and UK embassy sites on the official requirements for marriage in France. What I haven't found are some basic things, like how much notice do you need to give the Marie to reserve a date? Will the ceremony be too complicated to understand if we are not both fluent in French? (Hopefully, we should have at least passing French language ability by that point and presumably we could see a copy of the ceremony in advance.) Anyone got any advice/done this recently?
Cheers. Mei

oliverandlouise

Hi,

My wife and I married 4 years ago in Normandie. We are Anglican and "borrowed" a Catholic Church and a UK anglican vicar to conduct the ceremony. We had to stay in the "parish" or commune of the church for a minimum of 3 weeks, and had to be organised through corespondance months in advance with the Marie. The actual wedding was conducted in the Marie BEFORE the Church and various documents were jointly signed following a declaration. From my experience the Frence like their paperwork, forms, declarations and traditions. You will also need witnesses from either side of the party. If you have the stamina go for it, otherwise Gretna Green in Scotland makes a much easier alternative.

If you are inent on getting married in france I can send you more info.

Regards,

Oliver

herbie

The shocking thing I heard through a friend about getting married in France is that the woman needs to have an aids test! The woman, not the man! I have no first hand experience of this but other people have backed this up. It is a chauvenistic country and I know there are many laws like that still in place. Please check it out.

jdr

My daughter and son in law had to have an aids test to get married in Mexico.

oliverandlouise

Hi, Yes we both took routine set of bloods, including hep B and HIV which were only recommended to be done and not at all obligatory. I think it was to ensure that both the intended were aware that there is nothing to hide from each other, or in other words you will not wake up one day surprised to find yourself yellow with hepatitis!.

[With todays society it is not such a bad thing to do(!)]


The terms and conditions of each commune do vary, however I am sure most places operate a relaxed option whether or not to have these bloods taken.

I enclose some documents that were helpful, when I got married in France. You may need to magnify the text!





Oliver