Marriage

You and your partner must both complete a notice of marriage so that you can prove you meet the conditions for marriage. This applies regardless of whether you plan to marry in a church, a town hall, a religious community or abroad. If you live in different municipalities, you are free to choose which of the two municipalities to submit the declaration of marriage to.

If you want to change your name in connection with the marriage, you must fill in an application for the name change. The application must be submitted to the name authority at the church office in the parish where you live.

We wish to be married in Gentofte Municipality – what do we need to do?

1. Check if you meet the requirements

• Both parties must be at least 18 years old
• You must not be closely related
• You must not already be married to someone else
• If either of you has previously been married, the divorce must be final.

Read more on borger.dk about the conditions for marriage.

2. Submit a notice of marriage

• Go to borger.dk and search for “ægteskabserklæring” (notice of marriage). You may apply for a wedding by completing the notice of marriage no earlier than 365 days before the desired wedding date.
• Log in with MitID.
• Fill in and sign the declaration digitally.
  When completing the declaration, under point 6 “The Wedding”, you must indicate whether you wish to be married at the town hall or elsewhere.

Weddings outside the town hall are conducted solely by members of the Municipal Council, and it is important that you have made an agreement with a Municipal Council member before you complete the notice of marriage. Here you can find a list of the municipality’s Municipal Council members.

If you or your future spouse do not have MitID, you must contact your municipality of residence for assistance in filling out a paper form. This often requires personal attendance with valid photo ID and all the necessary documents for both of you.

If there are changes to your circumstances, you may need to complete and submit a new notice of marriage. If you are in doubt whether changes to your circumstances will affect your marriage application, you should contact the municipality where you sent your notice of marriage to.

The municipality can process your application no earlier than four months before the desired wedding date.

The municipality will check the marriage conditions and may request further documentation, if necessary. This could be, for example, divorce papers or documentation for the right to permanent residence if one of you is not a Nordic citizen.

3. Witnesses

For the ceremony itself, you are normally required to bring two witnesses. If you have no adult guests, the municipality can provide witnesses for ceremonies at the town hall.

For weddings outside the town hall, the municipality cannot provide witnesses.

If you are to be married on a Saturday, you must provide at least one witness yourself if you have no other adult guests.

4. On the day of the wedding

• Arrive approximately 10–15 minutes before the scheduled wedding ceremony.
• Weddings at the town hall are performed by a municipal employee, while weddings outside the town hall are conducted by a Municipal Council member.
• You will receive the marriage certificate at the ceremony.

If one or both of you are foreign citizens not from a Nordic country and do not have right to unlimited stay in Denmark, you must apply for marriage with the Agency of Family Law at familieretshuset.dk.

When you have applied at the Agency of Family Law and you want to get married at The Municipality of Gentofte - either at The City Hall of Gentofte or another place outside The City Hall. You must wait for The Agency of Family Law to send your trial certificate to The Municipality of Gentofte. 

When you have received the notification letter confirming that your trial certificate has been sent to The Municipality of Gentofte, you must send an e-mail to vielse@gentofte.dk with these information:

• Both your phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
• What date and time you wish to be married and we can only perform the wedding ceremony in Danish or in English.
• How many guests you wish to bring. 
• We will also need to know the full name and address of the two adult witnesses that must be present at a civil wedding.

If you want to be married another place than The City Hall you must have made an agreement with a member of the Municipal Council for the wedding (read more about this under the headline “If you wish to be married outside City Hall”.)

Please be aware that we do need at least 4 weeks from when we receive the trial certificate and your information to the date you wish to be married. 

We are normally performing wedding ceremonies at The City Hall of Gentofte:

• Monday, Tuesday and Thursday around 10 o’clock am or around 2 o’clock pm 
• Friday around 10 o’clock am
• Saturday at 11 o’clock am. 

If you wish for a Saturday, please be aware that you do need to bring at least one of the adult witnesses yourselves, while it is possible for us to supply the two witnesses on normal working days, if you do not bring any adult guests on your wedding day.

We do not perform weddings on Wednesdays, Sundays or Holidays when the city hall is closed.

Weddings outside the city hall are conducted solely by members of the Municipal Council, and you need an agreement with a Municipal Council member before you can send an e-mail to vielse@gentofte.dk with your information.

Here you can find a list of the municipality’s Municipal Council members.

When you get married, you can apply for a name change with the Name Authority in the country where you live.

If you live in Denmark you must apply for the name change no later than 3 weeks before your wedding date. When you complete the notice of marriage, it is important to state whether you have applied for a name change.

If you are a living in Denmark, you can easily do this by visiting the borger.dk website and using the "Ansøg om navneændring ved vielse" service.

If you intend to marry abroad, in a church or other religious community, the trial autohority will issue a trial certificate and will sent it to you by digital post or issue it on paper if you are marrying abroad.
You will then have to send the certificate to the marriage authority where you are getting married or bring the paper version if it is abroad.  
When you return home to Denmark, you must present the original marriage certificate with a translation in Danish, English or German to the municipality where you live so your civil status is registered as “married” in The Civil Registration System. 

If one or both of you have been married before, the previous marriage must have ended before you can enter into another marriage. Your divorce must be registered in The Civil Registration System CPR in the municipality where you live or have recently lived and documented.

If one of you is a widow or widower, community property from your previous marriage must have be divided or be in probate with an executor or personal representative of the deceased before you can remarry. This means the certificate of probate from your previous marriage must be submitted together with the joint notice of marriage from you and your new partner.

At Citizen Service, we strive to process your requests and questions regarding marriage as quickly as possible. We will send a response to you within four weeks from your inquiry. 

A marriage conducted abroad can be recognized in Denmark if it is valid in the country where it took place.

However, the following conditions always apply:

• Both parties were present at the wedding
• Both parties were 18 years of age or over at the time of the marriage
• The marriage must not be in conflict with Danish law

The marriage must not have been entered into for the purpose of obtaining a residence permit in Denmark.