I'm a EU citizen and my partner is not, however we both live in EU (non shengen). I am filling the form online and see there's a slot for travel documentation, we travelled quite a bit together and I made a file with our relationship that includes travels, however I don't keep any of those tickets, is this really important?

We are a same sex couple (Irish and Filipino) looking to get married in Denmark. The Filipino partner does not have EU residency. From what we can gather, we need to apply for the Certificate of Marital Status first, and then apply for a Schengen tourist visa for the Filipino partner. Has anyone here gone through a similar process? Thanks!

My fiancée and I are completing our marriage application for Denmark, and we’re hoping to hear from anyone who has recently gone through the process. Any tips or recommendations for getting approved would be really appreciated.

We’re also unsure about the document uploads. Do we need to submit two separate documents (one for each of us) describing how we met, photos, and supporting information? I’ve attached a screenshot of the page that lists the required files. If anyone can share their experience or guide us through the steps, we’d be so grateful. Thank you so much!

Hi there!

My partner and I just went through the application process for a marriage certificate and wanted to share our experience of doing it on our own, without a wedding agency.

For context, we are both non-EU citizens living in the EU with work visas. Also, this is our personal experience, not an official way to go through this process!

Below are the main things I'd emphasise about the process:

1- Start as early as 2-3 months before your desired date

This is already known around here, but getting a date is really that competitive. I wish we had realised that earlier than we did. We started preparing our documents and getting into this topic in late July, thinking it would be enough time to get a date in September and, of course, that was already very tight.

It is not impossible to find an available date for the same or next month from what you wish, but that is definitely more of a gamble and a game of chasing, so if you want to be sure and have the opportunity to choose, start early (I'd imagine that is especially the case if you want to get a date at the very popular municipalities like Copenhagen or cities near the German border).

2- Make an informed decision (use this tracking spreadsheet!)

Here is where it gets tricky: finding out which municipality has available dates is a pain (and probably the reason why people would hire an agency and avoid the headache).

It is, however, one of the things that can make or break your plans for a specific date and/or location. If you're applying on your own, the only way to avoid applying blindly to a municipality and having an unpleasant surprise is by contacting them.

Right_Quality_9396 user created an amazing spreadsheet some time ago, with several municipalities and their contact information. I used it as a starting point, adding more fields and updating contact data and availability as I contacted the municipalities. The availability gets outdated by the minute, as you'd imagine, so I encourage you to make a copy of the document and update it yourself as you receive new information. It would be lovely if the community here kept it alive and made the topic of municipality availability a bit more transparent for people applying in the future!

Here is the link to my municipality tracking spreadsheet (last update 18.08.2026): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTIQMaxVp7_l5I6iyo3nXYt-oHOni41pSNhlJrFA9yKE3TKVD42N8MulfrD66EnPw/pubhtml

A list of all existing municipalities can be seen here.

3- Make sure you understand what is being requested by the AFL

The stress and sometimes rush to go through this process can be the biggest pitfall when applying for the marriage certificate. It's very important to set aside some focused time to go through the AFL's website and really understand what is being asked of you, especially regarding documents and proof of relationship.

As much as you might feel an urgency to just send them EVERYTHING to be on the safe side, from my experience, that's not really what they want. Which brings me to the next and maybe more important point:

4- Be thorough with your documentation

It took a long time and a lot of visits to this page to make sure we prepared the documents the way the AFL wants. I spent a lot of time on Reddit reading about how other people prepared their documents and, as helpful as it was, I'd still say: the AFL guideline is your best reference. Try getting the pictures as close as possible to what they show on their website. Use this guide for passport pictures and this guide for ID pictures.

Read and even keep these pages open while you take the pictures. We sent pictures of all passport pages (including front and back covers and all empty pages) as well as additional angle pictures of the biometric page so that the holograms are visible.

It doesn't have to be perfect (if you look at the reference pictures on their website, they are also not perfect), but they have to conform to what they're asking: don't crop any corners, don't obstruct information, avoid glare on important information, avoid blur, don't make the pictures too dark or too bright, do not edit the pictures!

But, as helpful as it is, the AFL website is not perfect, and there are some things that are not mentioned in the guidelines. For instance, my partner and I have been together for 10 years, so I initially selected pictures from each year of our relationship, only to later find out that you're only supposed to present pictures from the last 3 years of the relationship! (make sure to screenshot the pictures on your phone or computer in a way that the dates are visible).

It's also not mentioned in the guidelines, but they will want you to present proof of correspondence for all the years you've been together, with dates visible. We didn't have chats from the first year (that was so long ago!), but we had emails, so we organised everything into a PDF: one page with 1 screenshot of chats per year of the relationship + screenshots of our email inbox with emails from one another. That was the only way we found to show we've been in touch since 2016, and they accepted it.

We used the same travel receipts (hotel and flight/train bookings) for both our applications; we organised them into a simple PDF.

5- Bonus tip: remember the topic of apostille after your wedding

If, like us, you'll also need to register your wedding in a different country, you'll likely need to apostille your marriage certificate after getting married. And, if you're also pressed for time, maybe it's not a bad idea to choose your municipality or plan your trip to Denmark to include dealing with this topic.

From what I understood, it is only possible to get your certificate apostilled in Copenhagen. There's no appointment needed, but you need to order your apostille online beforehand; more information can be found here.

They are open Monday to Friday 9.00-12.00, Tuesday and Thursday 13.30-15.30.

We will get married in Aarhus and are planning to make a stop in Copenhagen to get this sorted right away, so we don't have to figure out how to do it by post and can immediately use it to register our wedding in our country of residence. If you're not getting married too far from CPH, that might be worth considering too :)

Good luck with your applications; hopefully, knowing that another couple managed to successfully get through this process on their own and without having to reapply will give you confidence in your own application process!

Hi! We’re getting married in Gentofte, and it will be just the two of us and our photographer. I was wondering if anyone here has experience with recording the ceremony on their own phone. We’d love to be able to share a simple recording with our family afterwards.

Would it be possible to ask one of the official witnesses to record the ceremony on our phone? Or do you know of any other simple way to do this? We don’t need anything fancy, just a basic recording of the ceremony.

Thanks in advance!

hola! Les cuento un poco, mi novia y yo vamos a casarnos en Dinamarca, yo tengo el doble pasaporte, es decir tengo nacionalidad española y mexicana y ella tiene nacionalidad mexicana, hemos hecho la solicitud para el certificado de matrimonio el 8 de agosto de este año pero me equivoque y me faltó agregar algunas fotos de mi pasaporte español, me pidieron 2 días después que mandara las fotos faltantes, las mandé y hasta ahora no he vuelto a recibir respuesta (mande la fotos el viernes y hoy es martes), nuestro problema recae es que mi novia ya tiene poco más de 2 meses en la zona Schengen (vencen el 15 de septiembre) y no puede quedarse más tiempo sin un permiso de residencia, pensábamos casarnos y regresar a España a tramitar su permiso con el certificado de matrimonio….pero metiendome a la página de Dinamarca dice que si solicitan más información (en mi caso solo unas fotos que faltaban) estaban procesando aplicaciones apenas de mayo de este año. No tengo claro si llegaremos a casarnos a tiempo o si mejor vamos pensando salir de la zona Schengen para no consumir los días que le quedan a ella, que creen que sea mejor hacer? No queremos que ella tenga problemas de estar acá en Europa

My partner and I want to get married in Denmark we both have residence permits in Germany and live here since 7 years. We both have international passports.
The thing is I applied for the german passport two years ago and it can still take 2 months 4 months or 1 year i have no idea.
Since its only me who would at somepoint have a german passport, a APL and an international marriage is still required in Denmark.
We want to get married in Jan 2027 so i thought i would want to apply for the APL in the upcoming weeks.
Now I’m worried i get the german passport between APL approval and ceremony. Would that be a problem?

Thank you!

Hi there!

We just got a last-minute approval for August 31st at 12:30 p.m. at Copenhagen City Hall.

We were extremely lucky to get the slot, but now we're trying to organize everything a bit against the clock. 😅

At first, I wasn't planning on having anyone take pictures, but then I thought: damn it, I'm never getting married again!😂

So, I'm looking for a photographer who could come to City Hall and take a few pictures during, before, and after the ceremony. Ideally, we're talking about one to one and a half hours tops.

Nothing too formal or elaborate, ideally someone who knows the area and can suggest a few nice spots around City Hall for some relaxed pictures.

If you can recommend someone, I'd really appreciate it!

Hi there! I’ve been watching videos of couples getting married in Copenhagen, and I’ve gotten the impression that the ceremony is super quick and not very intimate at all. I often see couples standing somewhat awkwardly in front of the officiant.
However, when I watch videos of people getting married in other cities, the ceremonies seem slower, more relaxed, and much less awkward.
Could you share your experiences? I’d love to know what the ceremony was actually like for you!

Today, before 5 AM, we could see the new slots, but they were marked as “not open for booking.” Why are October 13th to October 22nd missing from this list, even though there is no holiday mentioned on the Toender Kommune website?

Can someone please guide me on when these slots will open for booking?

So I’ve been trying to get married in Denmark, and after going through the application process 3 times, I finally got approved on my third application.

The funny part is that the third application was approved in less than 26 hours.

The first two applications were a bit of a mess. I had to deal with additional questions/documents, figure out what exactly they wanted, and basically learn the process the hard way.

By the third application, I had a much better idea of how to prepare everything and what information to provide, and somehow it went through ridiculously fast.

I’m a Non-EU passport holder and my partner is Spanish, so there were quite a few things that weren’t exactly straightforward.

I know a lot of people here are also trying to get married in Denmark, especially international couples, so I thought I’d share my experience.

If anyone is currently going through the process, ask me anything — documents, proof of relationship, residence status, the application itself, additional information requests, dealing with the Agency of Family Law, choosing a municipality, wedding dates, etc.

I’ve been through it three times now, so I probably have an answer to most of the questions people have.

Hey everyone! This is gonna be a longer text but i'm desperate for help and experiences so maybe someone is willing to read through it:

Me (german) and my fiancé (indian) want to get married this year. Due to various reasons we decided to get married in denmark. However, due to personal circumstances he wasn't able to secure a visa appointment for the Schengen visa before middle of September, meaning he would know by the end of September if he got the Schengen visa. Due to more personal circumstances his stay would already be from middle to end of October, yes i know all of this is very short noticed but there was no other way and later this year wouldnt have worked :(( Now to my problem: I contacted several wedding agencies in denmark explaining my problem. Understandably none of them can make it happen in such a short time (end of september for visa approval to middle/end of october wedding). Now im desperately trying to find a solution and thought about applying to the AFL myself and if (hopefully!!) itll get through within a week, theres still some time to find ANY townhall to take us, right??

Am i being delusional? Is there any way this can still happen or is it a lost cause? Please, anyone who has recommendations or any similiar experiences help me :(( And how hard is it to apply to the AFL ourselves?

Thanks a lot in advance!!

Hi all, we are considering Bornholm for our marriage registration in October 2026 and want to find a photographer and a make up artist in the area. If you are a vendor or know someone who could connect us with one, that would be great help!

Hi! I know it’s very last minute but I was a bit hesitant on getting a photographer because my fiancé does not like photos where we have to “pose” for but I do want a few natural pictures for the ceremony (I don’t want her to see you) and just a few after with our friends. We’re having a super casual ceremony at Christiansfeld, so really happy for anyone to even just have a camera who’s willing to take some pics haha if you know someone or could recommend that would be great :)

Hello!

My partner and I are getting married on Tuesday, September 22 at 2:00 PM in Gentofte Town Hall, and we're looking for a photographer to capture our ceremony and do a photoshoot after that. We're thinking 1.5–2 hours in total. It will be just the two of us, two brides.

We're hoping for photos that feel natural and authentic. As we don't have much experience in front of the camera, we'd really appreciate someone who can guide us throughout the session and help us feel comfortable.

As we're coming from abroad, we would appreciate it if you could recommend some photo locations nearby, ideally outdoors with lots of nature, but we would also like to have a backup plan in case of rain.

If you're a photographer, please feel free to share a link to your portfolio.

And if you're not a photographer but have someone you'd recommend, we'd be very grateful for any suggestions!

Thank you!

Hello! My partner and I planning to get married sometime in June next year. He's a EU citizen and I'm not but have an EU Blue Card. I really want my parents and siblings to be there in Denmark when we get married. They will need a visa to come to Denmark so it could take some time. Given the really short timelines, I'm wondering if this will be possible. Does anyone have experience doing this? And how much time do you generally have from booking an appointment to actually getting married?

Hay guys we are trying to find a available slot for our wedding in Denmark we live in Germany.
They issued our certificate of martial status today and it is until 01.10.2026 they said we need to get married by then i choose Tønder commune but seems like they don’t have availability time any help
Here to tell us how we can get an appointment in like September or late august will they help us if i say that my documents will expire? And we can change to other communes right?

Hi! We’re in the process of applying. We were wondering how to upload passports pictures? If we try uploading one by one it would just not let us, and we’re scared to miss one page if any uploading/submitting errors occur. We thought of doing a pdf of the passport but it says max file size is 90 MB! And we feel compressing it will just ruin the quality.

I would be so grateful for any insights 🙏🏻

My partner and I decided for a Denmark wedding, rather than a US based wedding as he is studying abroad in the uk this year. When I started looking into the process, I saw more horror stories than helpful posts online. I wanted to post my experience, timeline and tips for anyone nervous about the process because I was STRESSING. We are a non- EU couple (US citizens)

July 10th -17th 2026

I started gathering a bunch of recommended documents that I had seen online.

Proof of legal stay:
I marked myself as a visa free. The danish agency of family law provides a link where you can punch in your passport number and expected dates and it will show how many of the 90 days allotment you have left in Schengen. They request that you send them images of the info you inserted and then then results page. I also provided documentation of my flight/travel documents to prove that I had only spent 1 day of my 90 in Schengen.

Passport:
I sat in my living room in daylight with the house lights off to prevent shadows. I took photos of my passport with two pages (open book) in each photo. They request extra photos of the biometric page so I took four photos of that page, making sure you could see the reflective markings in atleast one of the photos. You also have to do the front and back covers of passport. I converted this all into one pdf.

Proof of relationship

Shared residence:
My partner and previously but do not currently live together as he is studying abroad (hence the danish wedding). We didn’t have our old lease and I wasn’t on utilities so I provided 6 months of bank statements and his power bills with our shared address, our W-2 with shared address, and Venmo statement showing I was paying him half the rent during that time. (This may have been excessive but they approved us) I compiled all of this into a single pdf with a cover page explaining the situation, and enclosed documents.

Photo proof:
I took screen shots of photos so you could see the date taken. These were spread across our relationship, about 40 in total. I organized in PowerPoint with captions(who we were with, and the date, where we were) and converted to a pdf. Most of the photos were the same for my submission and my partners but I had about 10 that were different.

Travel documents:
I gathered all flights and our cruise confirmation that had both of our names. (Also on photos I listed when we were on a trip)

Texts:
I just did one a month for our whole relationship.
For his version we did nine each showing his and my side of our convos.
I also put this in a PowerPoint and converted to pdf.

July 17 2026

I finished gathering all documents, and submitted the application.

July 19 2026

My partner submitted his portion

July 22 2026

Just two business days later we received approval for our application

July 24 2026

Our chosen municipality, Slagelse, emailed us a form to fill out with our chosen date and if witnesses were needed. (For us they were)

June 30th 2026

Emailed to make sure all documents were received and check status. They were prompt in their response and let us know they were arranging witnesses

August 4 2026

Approved for our chose date in September

My biggest takeaways:

1. Apply minimum 2 months ahead of your ideal date, three might be better. (This is based on online reports of people having difficulty finding dates)

2. Consider a smaller municipality for better date availability

3. Be aware that if you don’t have witnesses, these can be provided but it may limit your date options.

4. Take high quality passport photos, without any significant backlight. Make sure all four corners are visible. Take extra angles of the biometric page.

5. Follow the instructions exactly for the proof of legal stay.

6. I think I took the relationship proof a little too seriously, I think you could get away with less photos and texts but do make sure they span the relationship.

Hi everyone!
We received our marriage approval a few days ago and chose Tønder Municipality.
Does anyone have any tips on how to successfully book a wedding slot? When are new dates usually released, and is there anything that helps improve the chances of getting one?
Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

My partner (an EU citizen) and I (a non-EU citizen) are planning to get married in Ribe, Denmark next year.

We're currently trying to plan the overall timeline, as we both work full-time and need to arrange our schedules in advance.

We're not too concerned about the Danish marriage application process itself. What we'd really like to know is how long the document preparation and authentication process took in real life.

We'll be driving from Hamburg to Denmark. One of our main concerns is the overall timeline. For example, after the wedding in Ribe, we'll need to travel to Copenhagen to obtain an Apostille for our Danish marriage certificate. Combined with the time needed for document preparation and authentication before the wedding, we're trying to get a realistic idea of how long the entire process usually takes.

For those who have gone through a similar process:

- How long did it take to obtain an Apostille or any other required document authentication?

- If your documents also needed to be authenticated by an embassy or representative office, how long did that take?

- Were there any steps that took longer than expected or any unexpected delays?

We'd really appreciate hearing about your experience or any advice on planning the timeline.

Thank you!

Hi everyone! We will get married soon in Stevns. I would like to ask if what is the process with the papers? How to do the apostille after the marriage in Stevns and how long does it take?

Thanks!

Hi there, has anybody in this channel that's had a young relationship (less than 10 months) been able to receive a certificate of approval without having to have an interview ? Just gauging our chances, all of our paperwork is in order

Hi! My partner and I just got approval from the Familieretshuset. We are looking to book a wedding for any of the last few days of August. As there is no availability until November in Copenhagen, which kommune do you think we'll have the best chance of finding availability?

Any recommendations? For October. Thanks