Getting married in Gibraltar

Yep, we did it, we got married.

Getting married in Gibraltar is super easy. All you need to do is:

1. Email the registry office a photo of your birth certificates and passports
2. Pick/request a date
3. Go to the office at least a day beforehand to submit the originals and sign affidavits
4. Get married (takes about 10-15 minutes- the registrar briefs you on the proceedings, you repeat vows after him, then he says a few last things)

It cost us less than 250 euros to get legally married. (80 euros of this total was for the hotel, as it is a requirement to spend one night in Gibraltar. Add about 200 euros for our flights, but we used it as an excuse to spend five weeks in Spain.)

It may not sound romantic but we had such a fun time. We didn’t have witnesses so we just asked a couple at the registry office who were submitting their papers and getting married the next day. We ended up having a drink with them after our wedding and inviting them to visit us in Berlin. It was nice meeting a couple that had the same views on weddings as us. (Why the hell spend so much on a single day when you can put that money to better use?) The registrar that married us was extremely friendly and made us laugh the whole time. (I also laughed a lot because Artur didn’t understand what the registrar was saying at times and ended up repeating the vows incorrectly.)

Up until a few years ago, I wanted the whole traditional white wedding. Time passed, things changed, I changed. The night before we got married, I thought about what it would be like having a ‘proper’ wedding and I thought, ‘thank god I’m not doing that’. I’ve changed too much. The attention would stress me and I would constantly be feeling bad about the cost of everything.

I don’t believe that getting married is the happiest day of your life. That expression I just find depressing. I want life to get better, not go downhill. I also don’t need an extravagant public display to confirm something that is a private thing between two people.

We thought about having a party later on in Berlin with our friends. Even that I can’t really be bothered with anymore. I’m happy with how we got married (in our everyday clothes, no makeup, no rings and no, I am not taking his surname) and if I could do it all over, I would do it exactly the same way. Oh and how does it feel being married? It feels exactly the same as before we ‘made it official’.

With the registrar – photo taken with my broken Samsung phone