Applying to get married in the Netherlands

Are you planning to get married? If you intend to get married, you must notify the municipality of this at least 2 weeks and not more than 1 year before the wedding.

There are certain requirements for marriage that everyone must meet:

you must be at least 18 years of age;
you cannot marry someone who is already married or in a civil partnership;
you cannot be related to one other, e.g. grandparent, grandchild, parent, child or sibling.

Are you getting married to a non-Dutch citizen in the Netherlands? Then different conditions apply.

If you intend to marry someone of the same sex, you can get married in the Netherlands in the presence of the civil registrar. This is called a civil marriage, and you are only legally married once you have had a civil ceremony. In addition, it is possible to have a religious ceremony in some churches, but not all churches allow it. Check first with the church where you want to have the ceremony. A church wedding can only take place after the civil ceremony.

If you are getting married outside the Netherlands and are not yet 18 years old, your marriage will only be recognised in the Netherlands once both spouses have reached 18 years of age.

This is how it works for you

Your (future) place of residence falls under:

Municipality of Maastricht

Here is some information from your municipality.

Giving notice of intention to marry

You must register your marriage with the municipality, providing all your own, your partner's and your witnesses' personal details. The submission deadline is 2 weeks before the wedding date, but make sure to register ahead of time to avoid disappointment. You can register online after reserving a date in the wedding calendar. Please send an email to huwelijk@maastricht.nl or call +31 43 - 350 40 40 to do so.

Giving notice of an intended marriage online

If you both live outside the Netherlands, you will have to report your marriage in the municipality of Den Haag (The Hague). You can find more information on how to register a marriage for Dutch citizens living outside the Netherlands at the netherlandsworldwide.nl website.

You must make a number of choices and inform the municipality when giving notice of a marriage. This includes choosing the type of ceremony and the venue. The costs depend on your wishes and the possibilities in the municipality of Maastricht.

Ceremony

The ceremony is the official part of your marriage. You have the following options:

getting married free of charge;
standard ceremony;
enhanced ceremony (Monday - Friday)
enhanced ceremony 24/7

You can choose who performs your ceremony if you opt for an enhanced ceremony. The following options are available:

One of the municipality's wedding officiants. The wedding officiant will contact you a few weeks before the wedding date to introduce themselves and find out more about you and your future spouse. Please inform the municipality if you prefer a particular wedding officiant.
A friend or family member. Please contact the municipality If you would like a friend or family member to be your own wedding officiant.

Wedding venue

You can get married in various places. You can choose from:

One of the municipality's wedding venues;
A wedding venue of your own choice. Please inform the municipality about your venue by calling +31 43 - 350 40 40 or by sending an email to huwelijk@maastricht.nl. You may have to pay for a wedding venue of your own choice.