"Why Copenhagen?" has been the common question when we told people we got married there. I am a Cambodian; my husband is English; and we live in Berlin. Wouldn't it make more sense to get married in Berlin, England, or Cambodia?
Yes, we did have a big fat wedding celebration in Cambodia. But more to that later. What I'm talking about is the legal/civil wedding where you sign a paper that legally binds you as husband and wife.
So… Yes, we live in Berlin. No, we don't speak very good German. This makes it hard because (1) we will then need an official translator at the wedding, (2) it would be tough throughout the whole application because of the limited German, (3) the paperwork is just too much. This article here could tell you more about everything you need to do to get married in Germany. One of the most ridiculous document you need to provide — in my opinion — is the Ehefähigkeitszeugnis aka Certificate of no impediment to marriage from your country of origin (and if I'm not mistaken, from all the countries you have lived at prior to Germany). Did I also mention certified copy of birth certificate? It's not easy business to get that for some countries.
And "why not the UK then"? Which is actually a good question. UK is a bit simpler (probably because it's all in English so we could understand stuffs), but then we found out there is this requirement that "In order to actually start the marriage process, you and your partner have to have been living in the UK for at least 7 days prior to notifying a designated registrar office of your plans to marry". Read more from this article.
So yeah. Getting married in Germany seems hard. Getting married in the UK was also tricky. Thanks to the sponsored Google ads, we found out that a lot of expats in Europe goes to Denmark to get married. It looked like Copenhagen was the Vegas of Europe! No joke! Looking deeper, it was not like Vegas. There's no drive-through or laundry weddings. I know, disappointing right? But still, everyone claimed it was the best decision one could do if one of us are not German and not willing to go through the bureaucracy. So yeah, we decided to do Copenhagen.
The Application Process
There is literally this website that we found: https://gettingmarriedindenmark.com/ that provided a very clear step by step explanation of what to do. (FYI this is not a sponsored post or anything, I'm simply sharing information) They also provide the consultation service that helps you through with a fee. Honestly, the process is simple enough that you probably would not need the service, but we got it just for the peace of mind (and admit it — less stress for the bride).
So here is what we did.
- We emailed the website above to express interest.
- They responded with some basic questions to understand our situation (where we are from; does it look like we are getting married for the sake of visa; etc). Once they see that there is nothing dodgy about us getting married, they told us that they are able to help, but we need to pay for the service before they could advise further.
- We picked a service package, which was consultation + Apostille. We paid.
- Then they sent us a checklist of documents they need. Basically it was passports, resident permits, and Meldebescheinigung (which is an up-to-date registration certificate for your current address in Germany).
- Probably because of where I am from, they advised us that we should present a little document with pictures describing our love story: how we met, how well we have integrated into each other's lives and family, etc. I made a 3-page document and sent it to them. It was not hard for me to do because we have a scrapbook for each year we have been together so I just copied things from there and even snapped a few photos from the scapbooks themselves.
- After they got all the documents, they arranged the documents for us and send us the final versions that we could use for the application. They sent us a link to the website and some explanations how to fill them. But honestly — even without their help I'm sure you could figure out by yourself. The link to the website is here.
- One week after we filed the application, we received an email that says our application had been approved and have 4 months to get married and that we could now proceed to booking our venue and date for the wedding.
- The website to book the venue and date is http://www.kkvielse.smartqueue.dk/ and it is extremely user friendly. We can easily change the date if we need (which we did once). We can also specify if we want to do it in English.
- Document Check: so, the last step is that we need to present the original documents at the latest one business day before your wedding ceremony before 2pm. You can either turn up one business day before the wedding day, or in our case — we made a day trip to Copenhagen one month before the wedding and get it done with.
Voila! Now you just need to turn up for the wedding!
The Ceremony
We got married at Copenhagen city hall. Everything was straightforward and relaxing, and the whole ceremony was done in less than 10 minutes. We did not even have to bring any witnesses — they have those if we need. The people who performed the ceremony was nice and friendly, and we felt really comfortable. You can do vows too if you like. We didn't though. None of us really like to say emotional stuffs, so we skipped it. We simply said "I do"and exchanged rings, and kissed. And oh, we signed the papers too.
It was just the two of us. So simple. So easy. Not a care in the world about guests, how we looked, or anything going wrong. We focused on getting married and did exactly JUST that.
As you could see, we dressed up a little though and had a photographer to capture the moment. You can skip all these and just rock up. I told the consultant agency what I was looking for, and they gave me some recommendations. However, there's plenty of photography, makeup, and flower services at different price points that you could go for if you google or check on instagram. They are pretty nice and friendly too, so just send them a text with your needs. Some people also opted for the fancier packages where you get married it at your own venue or a little off the bustling city center area.
Any regrets?
None at all. We spent a bit of money but it was smooth and I recommend any expats living in Germany or Europe that struggles with the bureaucracy where they live to consider Copenhagen as their wedding destination. You can make it a little holiday and even invite people you care about to attend the ceremony.
Lots of love, from the newly Mrs ❤ Let me know if you have any questions or would like to know which photography and makeup service we used.
