Is wedding abroad legal, is your marriage abroad legal, does the UK recognise marriages abroad, make your wedding abroad legal.

The first thing that people who are thinking about a wedding abroad consider is if the marriage will be legal in the UK, well it’s not as daunting as you think and most of the time the answer will be ‘yes’ so long as the marriage is legal in the country that it was performed.

First of all you should contact the foreign embassy or consulate of the country that you are thinking of getting married in to find out about their legal requirements, if you have a wedding planner in the country that you marry in they can sort out the legal requirements of that country, you must meet the legal requirements of the UK as well as the country in which you are marrying such as being over eighteen or have a letter of consent, otherwise the marriage may be legal in the country you had your wedding but not be recognised in the UK.

You will need to take various forms and documents with you and this will vary depending on which country you choose to marry in but will include all or some of the following, your birth certificate (the long version not the short one), a ten year passport with at least six months remaining on it, a statement from a solicitor signed and stamped to say that you are both free to get married and a certificate of freedom to marry and proof of residence in the UK, these must all be originals and there may well be more documents that you need depending on where you are getting married.