Getting married in Ireland

Before any legal wedding

First, the notice: at least three months before the date, you both see a registrar at any civil registration service and pay €200 — book early, appointments fill up. If you live abroad, the registrar may accept the notice by post, but you still go together, in person, at least five days before the wedding. Bring passports, birth certificates (from an EU country with the EU’s multilingual form, from elsewhere perhaps with an apostille, translated if not in English or Irish), proof of address and any final divorce decree — a foreign divorce must first be accepted by the General Register Office. A partner from outside the EU shows their immigration status and is interviewed. All this happens in English or Irish: bring a professional interpreter if you need one, at the ceremony too. You then get the Marriage Registration Form, valid six months from your date; you, your two witnesses and the solemniser sign it after the ceremony, and it goes back to a registrar within a month. Only a court can waive the three months.

Rules, documents and fees change and depend on your nationality: always check with the civil registration service where you give notice — or, for a religious or humanist wedding, with your solemniser — and, for photos at a heritage site or in a national park, with the site or the park, before you set a date.