Marrying in South Africa

Tilikum

Hello All,

Myself and my gf have just started thinking about heading to South Africa to get married.

Maybe marry in Mozambique then on to South Africa for a safari. Could I please get some advice on....what is a must do/see when traveling to South Africa.

Also, do we have to get married here before heading off?

coylemj

You just need to make sure that your marriage is legally recognised by the civil authorities in the country where you get married, it's not absolutely necessary to get married in Ireland beforehand. The main thing to look out for is that if you get married in a church and/or by a clergyman, make sure that such a wedding also constitutes a civil wedding as it does in Ireland and a lot of other countries. If it does not, then you will also have to get married in a registry office. In France for example, you must get married in a registry office as the state does not recognise church weddings, regardless of the denomination.

To keep it simple and make sure that your married is properly registered, consider getting married in a registry office in Ireland and then do a church wedding (with no civil registration) in Mozambique, that way you won't have any problems getting copies of the marriage cert. in future if required.

When you're going to or coming back from Mozambique, you must visit Kruger National Park. Advance planning is definitely required when visiting Kruger as you can stay overnight within the park but you'll usually need to have your accommodation booked in advance and if staying more than one night, it would be fairly typical to stay in different lodges (in different parts of the park) each night.

One thing to watch out for - if you rent a car in SA you may not be allowed to bring it into Mozambique. When I was there (a long time ago admittedly), we rented a car in Jo'burg airport and were allowed to drive it into Swaziland but not Mozambique. It was not long after the civil war had ended in Mozambique so their infrastructure was still in a mess, things may be different now. And it won't be a case that you can just chance it, we had to show the rental documentation at the SA/Swazi border to prove that the rental agreement covered us to drive a SA-registered car in Swaziland

Tilikum

Thanks for all the info. We defo won't be marrying in a church though. Hopefully on a beach somewhere

tradhead

Was in South Africa for a wedding last year, we did a bit of travelling around but Cape Town really stood out for me, it's absolutely gorgeous. There's a restaurant called the Bungalow on the beach at Clifton which was amazing, fantastic food (top class steak, crab, lobster, the works) for fairly reasonable prices. I don't know if they do weddings but it would be a fab venue if they did, worth a look maybe I'm also possibly going to another one next year on a wine farm in Stellenbosch which could be another option if ye decide to have the actual wedding in SA. Safari-wise, Addo Elephant Park is stunning and very reasonable, we stayed overnight there in really cute little cabins and got so close to zebras, warthogs, ostriches and so many elephants, it was just out of this world!

(Just from thinking back on all this I've realised that I really want to go to that wedding next year haha, time to get saving!)

pwurple

Oh I'm mad jealous.
Two recommendations for safari, i recommend shamwari game reserve.

http://www.shamwari.com/

Addo elephant park was nice too, but shamwari was just a great experience in tents for a week or so, stalking lions at the crack of dawn, really was an unforgettable experience.

Kwandwe would the other one I recommend. Those two have the best reputations as far as I know. Both amazing for me anyway. Long time ago mind...
http://www.kwandwe.com/

As for marrying over there, I personally wouldn't be bothered with the hassle. Do a ceremony or whatever, but the legal bits and pieces are just going to be a pain in the backside to organise. Do a civil here and the song and dance there maybe.

Get your jabs. And don't dawdle in Johannesburg, get the fook out there as fast as you can if you are white.


i found the local travel agents to have a better local knowledge than anything you can arrange here. A local place arranged a driver for three days who basically brought us around the winelands and read his paper with a cuppa while we did vineyard tours (Having the odd taste). Consider franschhoek as well if you are thinking of stellenbosch.

endabob1

Hi OP

I lived in SA for 6/7 years and actually got married out there so happy to pass on any words of wisdom on it. Been (briefly) to Mozambique too, which is a typical East African mix of beautiful scenery, abject poverty and 5 star beach resorts

From my experience, legally the marriage is deemed to be done under Irish law since you are an Irish resident at the time of the wedding but I also know that dealing with the legalities in Africa is far from straight forward. So I would agree with the other sentiments expressed, I would actually do a legal ceremony at home and do the Ceremonial beach bit out there.

Cape town is enormously popular for weddings, so it depends on what you are planning, if it's just you and the Mrs or you & a couple of close friends/family it's probably easy enough to sort out, if you are looking for a 50+ venue then the good ones are very popular and are booked up well in advance.

SA has loads to offer, Cape Town is stunning, wine lands, beaches, mountains and THE Mountain, the garden route is very pretty and if you want to do a safari I would look at one of the private lodges in Kruger; Kwandwe & Shamwari are both in the eastern Cape and are much smaller private reserves and while you will see everything, it's not as authentic as the Kruger Park or indeed one of the Kenyan or Ugandan parks might be. That said they will be beautiful and very luxurious and it is after all your honeymoon :-)
The other plus to the eastern cape parks is that without checking I think they are malaria free so no need for the malaria tablets

If you wanted to do the eastern cape parks, it might be easier to fly into PE hire a car and you can also drive the garden route down to Cape Town spend a few days there and fly back direct from CT. But bear in mind that you will probably have to go everywhere via Johannesburg as it's the main hub airport in the region, even flights in to Mozambique will generally go through JHB and if you are flying to a regional airport in Moz, you might have to also go through Maputo. I would look at flights and see how much time you might waste in airports, because it could well be a factor depending on how much time you have.

Tilikum

Umkumbe Safari Lodge

I think that's the safari the travel agent has selected for us.

With regards to the wedding. It literally just the gf & myself that are going.

Thanks for all the info!

Jacovs

I'm South African and got married to my Irish wife last year, in South Africa.
We ended up doing a civil ceremony here in Ireland first, then had the wedding in South Africa.

Reason for this. Like Ireland has the 3 month notice and interview process, south Africa also has such a process. I'm not sure if this applies to 2 foreigners wanting to get married there, but it applied to me and my wife.

So it was just easier to do the legal bit here, then we could get anyone to officiate at the wedding, have it anywhere we wanted, since it had no legal side to it. Also would've had to fly to SA to attend an interview at whatever date they decided.

Don't miss cape town. It's the opposite side of the country from Kruger national park and Mozambique, but worth the 2 hour flight from Johannesburg. Can even fly from lanseria just outside Johannesburg, sometimes works out better. Much smaller airport, not in the city, also sometimes cheaper.

Tilikum

Jacovs wrote: »

I'm South African and got married to my Irish wife last year, in South Africa.
We ended up doing a civil ceremony here in Ireland first, then had the wedding in South Africa.

Reason for this. Like Ireland has the 3 month notice and interview process, south Africa also has such a process. I'm not sure if this applies to 2 foreigners wanting to get married there, but it applied to me and my wife.

So it was just easier to do the legal bit here, then we could get anyone to officiate at the wedding, have it anywhere we wanted, since it had no legal side to it. Also would've had to fly to SA to attend an interview at whatever date they decided.

Don't miss cape town. It's the opposite side of the country from Kruger national park and Mozambique, but worth the 2 hour flight from Johannesburg. Can even fly from lanseria just outside Johannesburg, sometimes works out better. Much smaller airport, not in the city, also sometimes cheaper.

Cheers, yeah we're going to Cape Town too.

Tilikum

Hello South African folk,

Would any of ye know if there has been a change with regards to tourists marrying in South Africa? We received an email today from the company arranging our trip/small cerimony saying that we can no longer marry there due to a change in regulations (department of home affairs). This is months after we have paid our deposit & flights. We're checked online and can see nothing.

endabob1

Ask the company to send you a link to the regulation changes on the Home Affairs website or some official Home Affairs press release stating that the regulations have changed.
Home affairs are very difficult to deal with and it is especially difficult over the phone or from distance, the only success I have ever really had is to go into an office and queue until you get to speak to someone.
I no longer live in SA but changes do happen, have you tried asking the Irish Embassy or consulate?

It may be that you will need to do a legal ceremony in Ireland and just have a ceremonial service in Cape Town..