Beach wedding in Finland help?!

Mackenzie269 · Post by **Mackenzie269** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 8:09 pm

Hello, my fiancé and I are getting married this summer in Finland he is Finnish I am an American citizen. We are not very religious and don't want to get married in a church but rather maybe the beach or a hall. I'm just wondering who we can get to marry us. He says we can not get married outside a church if we have a priest, in the states you can get married pretty much anywhere I. I was wondering if it was the same in Finland. Any info will help thank you!

Also any ideas of what beaches are nice for a wedding

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Mackenzie269 · Post by **Mackenzie269** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 8:41 pm

Also he does belong to a chruch so we can have a priest marry us. But I am not part of the church does that matter?

CH · Post by CH » Mon Feb 24, 2014 10:02 pm

A civil marriage is performed by a magistrate. Both a civil wedding and a "church wedding" can be arranged wherever you want to, it's just a matter of agreeing with the person performing the wedding (magistrate or priest). For the magistrate you have to compensate for travel expenses and time if it is outside of working hours, I would assume the same is for a priest.

Note, that summer weekends are booked early for weddings, so especially for popular churches (if you decide to wed in a church) find out what parish they belong to and how early you can book a wedding, and start calling immediately at that date.

References (sorry, I could only find them in Finnish):
http://evl.fi/EVLfi.nsf/Documents/63881 ... nt&lang=FI
http://www.maistraatti.fi/fi/Palvelut/v ... kitoimitus

Mackenzie269 · Post by **Mackenzie269** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 10:17 pm

Thank you so much, that definitely helps me a lot and if it's in Finnish I'll send them to my fiancé he can read them

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:39 am

Mackenzie269 wrote:Also he does belong to a chruch so we can have a priest marry us. But I am not part of the church does that matter?

If you're not part of any Christian church you can only have a civil marriage then. If you wish, you may have "church blessing" after being married in a civil ceremony.

ritan7471 · Post by **ritan7471** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:08 pm

My husband and I had a civil ceremony in the magistrate's office, then a family "wedding", a blessing ceremony where the priest came to grandma's house to have another ceremony.

He's Lutheran and I'm not a member of the church.

Oombongo · Post by **Oombongo** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:29 pm

I would highly recommend a beach wedding near (or inside) Vesikko sukellusvene in Suomenlinna in January.

snorlonikins · Post by **snorlonikins** » Sat Mar 15, 2014 6:40 pm

Also check out what papers you will need for the magistrate/maistraatti and if any of them need 'Apostille'. Everyone else has given you wonderful info. I hope it all goes ahead without a problem. Good luck!

mie · Post by **mie** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:42 am

In Finland it is possible to get married almost anywhere. It is just a strong traditon to get married in church. Finns are quite extremely old fashioned when it comes to arranging weddings... Magistrate and the church are willing to perform marriage in your own location. It is fun also for them, to be able to be somewhere else for a change. Just contact your local church or magistrate and they will see, if they have availeable person to perform your seremony. It is said, that for beach wedding, it is best to perform in on private beach, for example many mansions have their own beach area. If you wish to have your wedding on public beach, you would need to file an application for a permit with a local police.

filecore · Post by **filecore** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 9:18 am

Rip wrote:
Mackenzie269 wrote:Also he does belong to a chruch so we can have a priest marry us. But I am not part of the church does that matter?
If you're not part of any Christian church you can only have a civil marriage then. If you wish, you may have "church blessing" after being married in a civil ceremony.

This is mostly correct. However, you can have the civil wedding carried out in a church, with the magistrate officiating instead of the priest, so you do them both at the same time - it's pretty identical to an actual church wedding as far as your guests are concerned. Priest and magistrate both stand at the front. The priest can then give a blessing which, for the religious person, is more or less the same as having had a church wedding (legally wed and blessed by the church).

But yes, you can get married pretty much anywhere. I'd go with the person who advised finding a private beach at a manor though - unless you want tourists, drunk teenagers, and berry-picking locals showing up in your wedding photos!

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 9:29 am

filecore wrote: This is mostly correct. However, you can have the civil wedding carried out in a church, with the magistrate officiating instead of the priest, so you do them both at the same time - it's pretty identical to an actual church wedding as far as your guests are concerned. Priest and magistrate both stand at the front. The priest can then give a blessing which, for the religious person, is more or less the same as having had a church wedding (legally wed and blessed by the church).

I did not know that

As for OP, I hope they did not have their beach wedding during that last few weeks..

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