Visiting couples can make legally binding vows in Venice, in a Renaissance palazzo on the Grand Canal. A Venice wedding with legal standing is performed by an official of the Comune di Venezia, the City of Venice. Your Italian marriage certificate can then be apostilled for use at home. Most visitors face no lengthy residency rule, but there is paperwork, and the order you do it in matters.
How you marry in Venice depends on whether you want the marriage to be legal there or simply want to celebrate there. Couples choose between three routes, and only two of them leave you legally married.
Civil Ceremony: This is legally binding and officiated by a city registrar in an authorised hall. It's the usual route for couples who want to marry legally in Venice.
Catholic Ceremony: Under Italy's concordat with the Holy See, a church wedding can carry civil effect. It involves your home parish, the Patriarchate of Venice and the civil paperwork all at once.
Symbolic Ceremony: This has no legal standing and requires no Italian paperwork. You marry at home, then celebrate wherever you like in Venice, from a palazzo ballroom to the private island of San Clemente Palace.
Most civil ceremonies take place at Palazzo Cavalli, the city's wedding hall on the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge. Standard ceremony hours are Monday to Saturday, 8:45am to 1pm. Venice's official wedding tariff sets the following celebration fees:
Ceremony time | Non-EU citizens | EU citizens |
Mon to Sat, 8:45am to 1pm | €1,700 | €700 |
Weekday, outside those hours | €2,100 | €1,200 |
Pre-holiday, outside those hours | €2,400 | €1,400 |
Sundays and public holidays | €3,600 | €1,700 |
These rates apply when you book through the city's online form at least seven days ahead. Requests made inside that window add €500. If you don't speak Italian you will need an interpreter, and the city provides one for €300.
The city also licenses grander rooms: the Sala del Consiglio at Ca' Loredan costs €3,500 on top of the ceremony fee, and the Sala Cuoi d'Oro at Ca' Vendramin Calergi is €5,000, including the ceremony fee. The Sala Stucchi at Ca' Farsetti, on the other hand, costs €9,000 on top of the ceremony fee. The tariff even lists a €10,000 fee, including the ceremony fee, for a civil ceremony at an exclusive private location.
These are the city's fees only, so staging, chairs and flowers are extra.
Venice's document requirements depend on your passport:
US and Australian citizens need an Atto Notorio sworn at an Italian consulate before travelling. You also need a sworn declaration made at your own consulate in Italy, which is then legalised at the Prefettura.
UK citizens need a certificate of no impediment, apostilled and translated. You also need a bilingual sworn declaration made before a UK notary, also apostilled. If you live outside Britain, a nulla osta from the British Consulate in Italy can replace both.
German, Swiss, Austrian, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese citizens, among others, need a certificate of capacity to marry issued under the 1980 Munich Convention.
Everyone else needs a nulla osta from their home authority, or from their embassy or consulate in Italy.
Every document must be in Italian or officially translated, with an Apostille or legalisation where required. You will also need both passports and two adult witnesses with valid ID. If either of you has been married before, bring the divorce decree or death certificate.
Plan to arrive three to four working days before the ceremony so you have time to sign, legalise and lodge your papers. Book your ceremony room as soon as your date is set, because May, June and September go first. Late autumn and winter bring acqua alta, the seasonal high tides, so check the tide forecast and plan a dry route for any cooler-month date.
Remember that Venice is a city of boats. Guests, cakes and florists often arrive by water, so transport needs its own line in your budget. Ceremony rooms are intimate, which suits smaller guest lists, but for a historic confraternity hall, consider Scuola Grande dei Carmini, which holds up to 20 guests. For colour on a bigger scale, see this Pakistani wedding in Venice.
Still deciding? You can compare Venice with Lake Como, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast. Or start with our Italy wedding guide and our guide to planning a destination wedding.
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Ayrton Christian Braga is an SEO Specialist at Wedded Wonderland, where he writes optimized articles and web pages that center on destination weddings, cultural wedding traditions, and guides for everything in between.
