Who creates the marriage
In one group of countries only the civil registrar can marry people, and a religious ceremony has no legal effect at all. In the other, an authorised officiant — often including ministers of religion — may solemnise, and the religious ceremony is itself the marriage. The distinction sounds technical. It decides whether a marriage exists.
Notice and time limits
Everywhere, a procedure precedes the ceremony: notice, verification that both parties are free to marry, sometimes public publication. Periods range from a few days to several months, and the resulting authority to marry is valid only for a limited time. If the date moves, the process may have to start again — the most common administrative failure in wedding planning.
The minimum age is rising
Eighteen is now the norm. The exceptions — marriage at 16 with parental or judicial consent — are being removed one country at a time, and several have abolished them outright in recent years. Where they survive, they generally require a court's approval, not merely a parent's.
Same-sex couples: three tiers
The picture divides into three: full access to marriage; a separate status with broadly equivalent effects but a different name and often narrower adoption rights; and no recognition, sometimes alongside criminal penalties for same-sex conduct. Countries move in both directions between these tiers, and recognition of a marriage celebrated abroad follows its own rules again.
The property regime begins on the wedding day
Without an express choice, the default regime applies — in some countries a form of community of property, in others separation of property. It governs how assets are divided later and often whether you are liable for your spouse's debts. Changing it means acting before or at the ceremony; afterwards it becomes slow and expensive.
Two countries, two laws
A marriage celebrated abroad or with a foreigner, the law that governs the couple's property, children of two nationalities, an estate spread over two countries: the page on international couples gathers the common rules and explains the Hague Conventions.
The law country by country
The legal framework, the procedure, the time limits and the costs differ from one country to another. Each country below has a detailed page: governing texts, key facts, the actual procedure, costs, where to go and the traps to avoid.
Select a country to open its detailed page.