Certain circumstances allow you to get married outside the town hall.

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IStock / City Presse

In France, only a civil marriage celebrated by the mayor or one of his deputies has, in principle, legal force.

However, the rules governing this ceremony can sometimes spoil the wedding.

Local legislation can however be more flexible ...

The rule remains

Spouses must meet different requirements for their union to be recognized by law.

As for the substantive conditions, they must be of legal age, free of their consent, single and not be related to each other.

As for the form, the marriage must be celebrated in a commune with which at least one of the two spouses has lasting links, directly or indirectly.

This is particularly the case for the place of residence or for the city of residence of one of the fathers and mothers.

The mayor of the community concerned and his deputies are empowered to chair this union, all in a room open to the public within the town hall and in the presence,

at least

, of the future spouses and their witnesses (up to four maximum) .

Limiting exceptions

Only a few exceptional and often dramatic situations allow us to escape the administrative shackles.

In the event of "serious impediment of one of the future spouses", the latter can ask the public prosecutor to move the ceremony to their domicile or place of residence.

This may in particular be the case when one of the spouses is in prison.

But it is also thanks to this procedure that former President Nicolas Sarkozy married Carla Bruni at the Elysee Palace rather than in town hall.

In addition, in the event of "imminent peril of death", the registrar can decide alone to carry out this trip, without the need for the intervention of the prosecutor.

Any other municipal building can do the trick

Beyond these extremely rare hypotheses, the only possibility of escaping the communal hall was before it was under construction.

In the vast majority of cases, it was therefore necessary to go through the town hall, although it is not necessarily suitable for hosting this type of event.

For practical as well as legal and human considerations, the Law on the modernization of 21st century justice of 18 November 2016 relaxed the rules in this area by specifying that “the mayor may, unless opposed by the public prosecutor, assign to the celebration of marriages in any communal building, other than that of the common house, located on its territory ”.

Getting married in the village hall - designed to host a union in public and republican conditions - rather than in a small cramped room in the town hall is therefore possible.

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