Religious ceremony in Poland and Civil ceremony In Ireland?

enfant terrible

Hi guys,

Myself and my fiance are getting married at the end of June this year.

Would it be ok to have the religious ceremony in one country and the civil ceremony in another country?

Are there any issues doing this or are they entirely separate?

Would we be better off having them in the same country?

Thanks

miezekatze

Is a religious ceremony in Poland legally binding? I know in a lot of countries it's not and you still have to do the legal stuff at the registry office first. If that's the case I wouldn't see any issues, you get legally married in Ireland and then just have a symbolic ceremony in Poland.

enfant terrible

miezekatze wrote: »

Is a religious ceremony in Poland legally binding? I know in a lot of countries it's not and you still have to do the legal stuff at the registry office first. If that's the case I wouldn't see any issues, you get legally married in Ireland and then just have a symbolic ceremony in Poland.

Thanks miezekatze

uck51js9zml2yt

Friends did similar. Legal wedding in Ireland and religious ceremony in Slovakia.

Peregrinus

You want to do your research carefully, esp. at the Polish end. In Poland Catholic church wedding are recognised by law, which means that as a matter of Polish law if you have a Catholic church wedding you are married both from a religious point of view and as a matter of Polish civil/state law. And the Irish legal position is that if a foreign ceremony is legally recognised in the place where it is celebrated, then it is legally recognised in Ireland too. So, if you have a church wedding in Poland and then rock up to the registry office in Ireland asking them to marry you, there's a risk they may say "No. You are already married."

There's two possible ways to avoid this risk.

One is to explore whether it's possible to celebrate a church wedding in Poland in such a way that it doesn't attract civil recognition e.g. by not filling out the civil paperwork, getting a civil marriage licence, that kind of thing. It may be that, as a matter of Polish law, there is nothing you can do to avoid civil recognition. Or it may be that, as a matter of law, there is, but the church won't co-operate. (Churches generally don't like to celebrate marriages where the couple are deliberately evading civil recognition.) So you're going to have to do your research to find out what is practical or possible in this regard in Poland.

The other is simpler; have your civil wedding in Ireland first, so that you are already legally married by the time you present yourselves at the Polish church. The church will have no problem in principle celebrating a wedding to give religious validation to an existing civil marriage. There'll be paperwork issues and, again, you'll need to do your research to find out what, exactly, the Polish church will need to see in order to be willing to marry you, and there might have to be some lapse of time between the two ceremonies while you line up the paperwork, any necessary translations, etc. But it should be possible.

enfant terrible

Just updating this thread for anyone in a similar situation in the future.

The Civil ceremony was pretty straight forward, you need birth certs, the Polish one needs an apostille stamp.

My wife didn't need a certificate of freedom to marry as she was in Ireland since she was thirteen, you may need one if you were older coming to Ireland.

The religious ceremony was a bit more tricky, you need the Irish birth cert and confirmation cert officially translated into Polish.

You will need to do the marriage preparation course with a Polish priest.

This very nice priest sent all our documentation off to Poland for us.

You will also need your to present your civil marriage cert and a translated version to the priest marrying you in Poland.

You will also need an official translator at the ceremony if the Irish person does not speak Polish.

You will also need to go to confession before ceremony.

I think that was everything