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Anyone getting married in Spain/got married in Spain? Having trouble finding a wedding planner.

Knottie54764802Knottie54764802 member
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in Destination Weddings Discussions
I'm also open to any other tips or suggestions you may have! I have an account on bodas.net for reference. Thankfully my husband is from Spain, and I lived there for a short time, so we are familiar with the area where we are getting married (Granada) and speak the language, but planning a wedding is a whole different ballgame! I greatly appreciate any advice! Thanks :) 
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Re: Anyone getting married in Spain/got married in Spain? Having trouble finding a wedding planner.

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    Knottie54764802Knottie54764802 member
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    Ps. Husband already because we got married in the court to start immigration paperwork, but are still planning to celebrate with family and friends/ get married in a Catholic church over there.. 
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    amelishaamelisha member
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    I was under the impression that it wasn't permissible by the Catholic Church to have any kind of marriage ceremony once you're already legally married.Am I wrong/is it different in Spain/have you researched this yet? 

    Other posters may have more to say about getting "married" when you're already married. They call it a PPD and there's a sticky thread on the Etiquette board that I highly recommend you look at.

    Why not just host a nice "celebration of marriage" party/have a little vow renewal? That will make things significantly less complicated from both a planning and etiquette perspective.

    I lived in Spain for some time but in Malaga, so I can't help much beyond this, unfortunately.

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    Jells2dot0Jells2dot0 mod
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    amelisha said:

    I was under the impression that it wasn't permissible by the Catholic Church to have any kind of marriage ceremony once you're already legally married.Am I wrong/is it different in Spain/have you researched this yet? 


    Other posters may have more to say about getting "married" when you're already married. They call it a PPD and there's a sticky thread on the Etiquette board that I highly recommend you look at.

    Why not just host a nice "celebration of marriage" party/have a little vow renewal? That will make things significantly less complicated from both a planning and etiquette perspective.

    I lived in Spain for some time but in Malaga, so I can't help much beyond this, unfortunately.
    I think in Spain the civil ceremony is always separate from the religious ceremony. If that's the case, there would be no PPD issue as OP is just following legal protocol. I was secretly hoping someone would confirm this for me, though :)

     







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    Knottie54764802Knottie54764802 member
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    Sorry if my post was confusing. I wasn't asking about if we should do a wedding or if we are able to. All of that is decided, and there is no problem with it. I was just trying to get any advice from anyone who has experience getting married in Spain. I'm more looking for references or good websites to use or ways to look up vendors (besides bodas.net, because I have an account there already). Thank you though. 
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    Knottie54764802Knottie54764802 member
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    Ps. I looked at the post you referred to. That is an opinion of one person, a very strong one to say the least, and every case is different. I am not asking anyone to judge what I am doing, I was just looking for advice for planning my wedding, not my "wedding". 
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    Jells2dot0Jells2dot0 mod
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    Is it accurate that the civil aspect of a marriage in Spain is always separate than the religious component? I'm genuinely curious, as I know it's that way in other parts of Europe.

    The reason that this is such a "hot topic" on these forums is that many people get married in a courthouse, pretend it's not their real wedding, lie to/withhold the truth from their guests, and then ask the guests to spend thousands of dollars to witness a re-do wedding. However, if in Spain the two ceremonies are always separate, then there are no etiquette issues that would need to be addressed in your plans.

     







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    Knottie54764802Knottie54764802 member
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    The Catholic church does not consider a couple married if they haven't been married by the Catholic church. Each individual would be considered single by the church even if they were married by a civil matrimony, at least in Spain.
    I don't know exactly what you mean by always being separate, but if you want the state/government to recognize your marriage, you still need a marriage licence. 
    In our case, we got married here in the United States so my husband could get his green card to start working and stay in the country after completing his graduate degree. So, we do not have to do any of that paperwork once we are in Spain because we notified Spain of our marriage already.

    We will still do the pre-marital counseling required by the church. I honestly do not know all of the logistics because the priest is a long time friend and all of our communications are informal.  

    And as far as "etiquette" goes, all of our familiy/friends know that we are married and none of them are required to fly to Spain to "spend thousands of dollars" on us. 
    The bridal party seems more excited about planning and going even than I do, so I don't think that they are going to resent me or my husband for making them do anything, as that post stated. 

    As far as his family goes, the reason we are doing it in Spain is so they can be present since they are living so far away, again, his parents are sending us emails and Skypeing us daily with ideas and are beyond excited. We are planning to pay most of the wedding ourselves. 

    I do not want to be defensive, but the board that Amelisha directed me to is completely one sided and is conveniently closed to comments, so it is not even a discussion board. It appears as if it is a rule and not an opinion. 

    Thank you Jells for commenting. Do you plan on getting married in another country? 
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    Jells2dot0Jells2dot0 mod
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    edited October 2014
    I was married in a civil ceremony in Australia. There was no religous component to our wedding, but the ceremony was legally binding and we use our Australian marriage cert here in the US. We are also both US citizens, so Australia was just a place we chose rather than having any family or immigration ties to it. 

    I realize that the Catholic Church does not recognize a marriage unless it's done in the church. However, it is custom in several European countries that you must first marry in a civil ceremony at city hall before any religious ceremony is held. So, you essentially have two ceremonies- one civil and one religious. This is not considered a PPD, like you read about on the Etiquette board, because you are legally required to have two ceremonies if you want to have your marriage recognized in the church.

    edit- also, the PPD thread was once open to discussion but it got WAY out of control. It was MANY pages long. If you would like to open a new discussion on it and how it fits within your plans, you are free to do so. If your plans require the steps I mentioned above about needing two ceremonies, you will not find any etiquette objections to your plans. 

     







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    Knottie54764802Knottie54764802 member
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    Oh, I see what you are saying. Sorry about the confusion I honestly am not sure and haven't looked into it because we are already legally married here and have certified our marriage with Spain. I'll ask around and if I find anything out I'll let you know.

    I am not interested in starting a disussion about my specific circumstances because, no offense to anyone, but the opinion of my husband and loved ones are the only ones I need. I also do not feel the need to explain myself or let technicalities determine if our wedding is socially acceptable or not.

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