Legal weddings in Sicily for British couples
Really get married in Sicily
Vows on a terrace above the sea, dinner in a candlelit courtyard, Etna on the horizon. The biggest day of your lives, on an island built for it.
If you want the marriage itself to happen in Sicily, that is exactly what we're built for. We deal with the comune (the local council) directly in Italian, get the documents and sworn translations right, and interpret at the declaration and the ceremony itself, one person from the first message to the wedding day.
And whether you want the whole day planned or only the hardest parts handled, we find your venue and bring the trusted local team together, with you from the UK and on the ground in Sicily.
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The part we do ourselves
You started by imagining where you'd say your vows, not researching apostilles, sworn translations and the marriage rules of a Sicilian comune. That part is ours.
Plenty of planners will steer you towards a symbolic ceremony, because the legal route is hard work and needs professional language skills: the comune's checklist, the timings, sworn translations to organise and check, and the interpreter Italian law requires at the declaration before the registrar and again on the day, who cannot be either of you. We handle all of that ourselves, in Italian, either on its own or alongside the planning.
We handle the whole process: the certificate of no impediment, the apostille and sworn Italian translations, the declaration before the registrar a few days ahead, and the interpreter and witnesses Italian law requires, all dealt with in Italian on your behalf. Civil unions follow the same rules at the same venues, so every couple has the same choice. Every local comune applies the rules a little differently, and your own circumstances shape the route, so we discuss your exact checklist with the comune before you book anything.
Italian law also decides where a civil ceremony can happen: somewhere the comune has authorised, a casa comunale. That once meant the town hall, and it still can. It also means Taormina will marry you in a fourteenth-century palazzo, Erice in a Norman castle above the clouds, and Siracusa in any of eleven places, most of them on Ortigia. Some comuni have authorised private venues too, so the ceremony can happen in a garden or on a beach, like the amphitheatre gardens at Thalos or the sand at Blasé in Marzamemi, both pictured on this page.
Wondering where the legal ceremony itself can happen? See a selection of authorised venues, from the only place you can legally marry in Taormina to a casa comunale on the beach. And for the paperwork itself, step by step, here is how the legal route works.
If you would rather marry at a UK register office and simply celebrate in Sicily, that is a perfectly good route; it just isn't the one we run, and this page is about the one we do. Still weighing it? The two routes, side by side.
How it works
Tell us what you're picturing
A WhatsApp message or an email: your date, your corner of Sicily, roughly how many guests.
We work out the route
We confirm what your comune requires, where the ceremony can legally happen, and quote one fixed fee in writing.
You get married. We handle Sicily.
You make the decisions that feel like planning a wedding; we deal with the paperwork, the comune and the suppliers in Italian.
Three starting points for planning your wedding
These are not fixed packages. We tailor the scope around what you need, agree it with you in writing, and charge one fixed fee for our work, never a percentage of your budget:
Ceremony
You want the marriage itself to happen in Sicily, without every dinner and flower arranged. We handle the comune, the paperwork sequence, the sworn translations (included in our fee), the declaration before the registrar, the interpreter, witnesses where needed, and the ceremony itself. Where you want them, we arrange the photographer, flowers and chairs.
It works with or without a celebration around it, and we can include selected venue help where you need it.
Ceremony and Celebration
You want the marriage and the celebration in Sicily, without months of comparing venues and suppliers from the UK. We handle the legal marriage and build the celebration around it: a shortlist of reception venues against your brief and budget, negotiation in Italian, menus and terms checked, and the suppliers lined up, from catering to music.
You contract and pay each supplier directly, at their real price.
The Whole Wedding
You want to enjoy planning your wedding without becoming its project manager. Full planning: design, budget, suppliers and the day itself, planned with you and delivered by a team we bring together around your wedding, with one point of contact throughout.
We take a small number of these a year.
Which Sicily?
Taormina and the east
Drama, sea views and Etna on the horizon.
The baroque south east
Noto, Ragusa and Ortigia: honey-stone streets and cinematic light.
West Sicily
Palazzi, cloisters and salt-pan sunsets, all faded grandeur.
Etna and inland
Vineyards, masserie and long tables under the volcano.
Each is a completely different wedding. See where the ceremony itself can legally happen, corner by corner.
More than a day
A wedding in Sicily is not only your day. It is a few days you give the people you love: long lunches in the shade, evenings that run late, a corner of an island most of them would never have seen. That is the real reason many couples choose it.
What a Sicilian wedding costs
Costs vary greatly depending on your choices, but as a rough guide: just the two of you, from about €4,000 all in. Up to about ten guests, roughly €5,000 to €8,000. An intimate celebration for 20 to 30: €12,000 to €30,000. A classic wedding for 40 to 80: €30,000 to €60,000. A full villa production for 80 to 120 or more: €60,000 to €120,000 and beyond. Sicilian venues mostly price food and wine per head, commonly from around €80 to €150, which is why guest numbers move the total more than any other choice. The jump between about ten guests and twenty is the one to plan for: that is where you stop booking a table and start hiring a venue and the suppliers around it.
What the ceremony itself costs, from the comune's fee upwards, is here.
What we help you avoid
Planning a Sicilian wedding from the UK may look simple until you start. You cannot tell a good caterer or florist from a beautiful website, and many wedding directories are advertising-led, so prominence is not the same as the right fit for your wedding. Contracts and deposits arrive in Italian, every site visit means a flight, and the venue, the directories and the suppliers all answer to themselves.
We answer to you. We are not tied to any one venue or agency, and when something needs putting right two weeks before the wedding, there is one English-speaking person who can pick up the phone in Italian and do it.
Who we are
Married in Sicily gets British couples married in Sicily, and plans the wedding around it. It is led by Dom Hebblethwaite, bilingual in English and Italian, who deals with the comuni, the contracts and the suppliers in Italian himself. More about who you'll be dealing with.
Talk it through
Tell us the wedding you're picturing: a courtyard on Ortigia, a castle above the sea, a garden under Etna. We'll tell you where that day can legally happen, what it would cost, and how we make it real.
Or start with the free guide: the two routes, realistic costs, and what to book first.
We only use your email to send the guide and occasional updates. Unsubscribe any time. Privacy.