Weddings in Sicily
Wedding Locations in Italy
Sicily…until recently it was one of Italy’s best-kept secrets. Today it is one of the hottest wedding destinations in the world. And for good reason. Sicily is not only one of the most beautiful island paradises in the world, but it is home to some of the most beautiful churches and ancient architecture you are likely to find anywhere. You will simply not believe your eyes when you see the gold gilded domed Byzantine Abby near the picturesque town of Palermo where the ancient kings and queens of Sicily were wed. The sight of this ancient hall will literally take your breath away.
You’ll believe in magic and the romance of true love the moment you take your first breath of Sicilian air.
What young girl hasn’t dreamed of her fabulous wedding in an ornate, gilded, 14th century church or in an ancient palace where once lived a king and queen? And following her fairytale wedding, what bride-to-be hasn’t fantasized that she and her Prince Charming are whisked away by horse-drawn carriage to a dream-like castle where a fabulous reception is laid out for her and her lover and their guests? In Sicily your dream can come true.
From the moment you step onto the magical island of Sicily it is as if time has stood still. Everywhere you look the centuries fall away, revealing a more charming, more gallant time, a land of chivalry and romance. This is the feeling you and your guests will have if you wed on the magical isle of Sicily – and they are the memories you will hold in your hearts for a lifetime.
It is as if time has stood still in this magical paradise known as Sicily.
There is no other place in all the world like Sicily. It is truly a land that time forgot. It is a land where you can seek the favor of the gods in a thousand-year-old Greek temple, or marvel at the Arab domes of mosques built more than five hundred years ago, and gape at the majesty and the unparalleled beauty of a Byzantine Abby – and do it all in a single day.
There is a web of magic that radiates everywhere on Sicily. It was here on the shores of this magical paradise that the novelist D.H. Lawrence wrote his enduring romantic classic, “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” and it was the beauty and the romance and the seclusion of this unique island paradise that encouraged Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to fall madly, passionately in love.
Medieval towns that haven’t changed in four hundred years still dot the landscape.
Norman castles pose on the edge of cliffs as if plucked from the pages of a romance novel. Walk through living, breathing medieval towns, like Erice and Cefalu that have barely changed at all in more than four hundred years. In Cefalu, a favorite wedding destination, your civil ceremony will be held in the regal and ancient castle of Bordonaro, and your Catholic ceremony will be held in one of the most majestic and imposing Norman cathedrals ever constructed.
There is – quite literally – nowhere in the world that matches the ancient splendor and the grand and glorious past the same way that Sicily does…because here in Sicily, the present simply does not exist.
Italy encourages lovers.
Getting married in Italy is not difficult. If neither the bride nor the groom is an Italian citizen there is no residency requirement and banns (a wedding announcement) need not be posted. Foreigners wishing to marry in Italy need to provide a passport or a military I.D. card, a recently-acquired birth certificate, and must swear in two notarized documents that they have the legal right to marry under the laws of their home country. Acquiring all of the necessary permissions generally takes approximately three days.
Although the paperwork in Italy is not terribly difficult, it is still necessary to have documents translated by an accredited translator and certain documents need special stamps, so it is recommended that a marriage facilitator be retained to walk you through the process and to make certain that all signatures on all the required documents are in place before you approach the authorities for permission to marry.
While religious marriages are recognized as legal in Italy, it is difficult and time-consuming for foreign couples to get the required permission to be married by a religious ceremony. What is more common is for couples to have a civil ceremony first, followed by the religious or symbolic ceremony of their choice.
You’ll think you have stepped back in time to the age of Camelot.
Sicily is as close to Camelot as you are likely to come in this lifetime. If you have always dreamed of a true medieval or Renaissance wedding then Sicily is the magical kingdom where all of your fantasies are still being lived to this day. Who knows how much longer the magic that is Sicily will exist – but while it remains, why not let it cast its spell on you and your lover, and provide a soul-full of romantic memories that will last a lifetime…a perhaps beyond.
