Marriage While In Gibraltar?

[glmpearce]

Hello!

 

My boyfriend/fiance and I are considering eloping to Gibraltar while on our cruise in June. We would be in the port of Gibraltar on a Thursday from 1-11pm. I'm trying to talk to wedding coordinators to see if we can execute a wedding just for the two of us during the 10 hours in port. Has anyone had experience with this?

 

Any positive input is greatly appreciated! :)

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Why Gibraltar? Not sure where else you are going on your cruise but Gibraltar was not the high point of my cruise. It is very windy there and not a good hair day!

[Keith1010]

You may want to check on the wedding and honeymoon board.

 

Keith

[6rugrats]

You will probably not find any useful information on the wedding board here. The majority of posters there are getting married on board before sailing, or in the Caribean.

 

You can easily look up the requirements for a US citizen to be married there. You must present the required paperwork to the registry office at least 24 hours in advance. I do not believe you will be able to be married there with only a 10 hour port stop, unless there is some special exception for cruise ship passengers working with a coordinator.

 

Also, weddings outside of the Registry office are usually held Tues-Friday, between 10 and noon. Weddings at the Registry office are booked for Mon-Fri 10 to noon. Your ship won't be docked by then.

[glmpearce]

Hello, Thank you for your replies. We are considering Gibraltar as a marriage destination because it is on our cruise itinerary, it has low to no residency requirements (unlike almost all other European countries), and it is low cost and low hassle. Side Bar: my fiance is a HUGE Beatles fan, and this is where John Lennon married Yoko Ono.

 

That being said, we now know that we would have to fly in and present all documents at most 3 months in advance of the marriage date and at least 25 hours before the civil ceremony. I think this will not jive with what we wanted our wedding day to be like. We just want to be able to dock, hop off, wed, enjoy the scenery and get back on the ship to head on out to our next adventure.

 

I guess we will keep looking for our perfect venue. Thank you to all who read and posted!

 

FYI - we are open to suggestions, but as we are from San Diego, we are not thrilled with the carribean scenery or hawaiian landscape. We can get that at home if we want it. We are more the type to get married on a glacier or in some far away place with just the two of us. All suggestions are welcome! Thank you!

[GrammieK]

Have you considered getting married on the ship before docking in Gibraltar and then going ashore for wedding pictures? I know it is not the same, but may work for you. Whatever you do, comgratulations!

[glmpearce]

Thank you GrammieK, that is a good idea. I think we'll discuss and see if we can make that work.

 

Thanks again!