Weddings in Cyprus

Useful Shortcuts: 24hr ATMs; Petrol Stations; Pharmacies; Car Rental; Beaches

Browse by Category: Hotels & Accommodation; Restaurants; Entertainment & Nightlife; Shopping; Real Estate & Construction; Automotive; Sports & Recreation; Personal Services; Professional Services; Sights & Attractions; Full Category List

Top Destinations: Agia Napa; Kato Pafos; Lefkosia; Protaras; Lemesos; Pano Platres; Lefkara; See all Destinations

Top Contributors

Top Rated

Weddings in Cyprus

The Cypriot Wedding

Witnessing a traditional wedding in Cyprus can be a real treat and a memorable experience for visitors to the island.

Even though a lot of the wedding’s traditions have been lost or relaxed, you can still enjoy many of the original rituals when attending a village wedding.

Most couples marry in the summer months and leap years are avoided because they are considered unlucky. The celebration begins with the dressing of the bride and groom usually to a musical accompaniment. Then it is off to church, the time of the ceremony depending on the number of other weddings taking place that day. The guests attending the one-hour-long ceremony are usually too numerous to fit inside the church.

Afterwards, the festivities begin with the "making of the bed", the symbolic setting up and decoration of a mattress: married women carrying the future couple's bedclothes dance around the mattress and make the bed. Guests then decorate the finished bed with coins and banknotes.

Each guest is then offered a drink and a plate piled high with the wedding meal. This traditionally includes a range of set dishes: fried slices of potato, cucumber, tomatoes, kleftiko (lamb roasted in a sealed oven or sealed earthenware pot) and pastitsio. Women carrying large bowls distribute resi (crushed wheat porridge), and kourabiedes (baked almond pastries).

At this point the dancing starts, and lasts until about midnight: there is the tsifteteli, a simplified form of the belly dance, which men and women do separately in pairs, or the rembetiko, a dance in which a single individual performs to the syncopated clapping of a circle of friends.

Depending on the size of the orchestra, instruments usually include the bouzouki, the electric guitar, drums and - replacing the bouzouki and the guitar in traditional wedding music - the violin. The repertoire tends to be similar to that employed at most other festivals and in the bouzouki nightclubs; the latest "hits" are essential.

Once the evening is quite far advanced, it is time for the choros tou androjinou (couple’s dance), danced only by the bridal couple. This is when the guests shower money on the bride and groom. The couple literally disappear under long chains of banknotes, all pinned together to the bride’s wedding gown.

Finally, towards midnight, the guests disperse.

Getting Married in Cyprus

Being the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, it makes a lot of sense to choose Cyprus as a place to get married.

And that it exactly what many couples are doing these days.

All-year sunshine practically guaranteed, convenient marriage formalities and excellent facilities make getting married here a natural choice, and this is why Cyprus is rapidly becoming one of the most fashionable destinations for Mediterranean weddings.

There are many wedding planners that specialise in organising weddings in Cyprus. They can guide you through the process of organising that special day and have all the contacts to make the necessary arrangements for you.

Procedures and Required Documents

Celebration of civil marriages

Anyone wishing to get married in Cyprus may only apply, in person upon arrival in Cyprus, to the Marriage Officer of the Municipality of their choice, in order to go through certain formalities which are necessary prior to their wedding.

Procedure to be followed:

(a) As a first step, the interested persons who should be in possession of legal identification (passports and birth certificates) have to fill in, sign and submit to the Marriage Officer a joint application called “Notice of Marriage” indicating their wish to marry each other and containing their particulars on the basis of their passport.

(b) At the same time, each of the two parties must make a declaration on oath or affirmation before the Marriage Officer that they know of no impediment or other lawful hindrance to their marriage and that any necessary consent required for the marriage has been obtained, or that no such consent is required.

(c) The interested persons should also furnish an official certificate indicating that they are not married. Divorcees have to present the “Decree Absolute” of their dissolved marriage and widows/widowers have to present the “Certificate of Death” of their late partner. Also they both have to make a sworn declaration (affidavit) that they have not married since.

(d) When these formalities have been completed, the marriage must be celebrated within 15 clear days at the earliest, or within three months at the latest, from the date the notice is given. If, for any reason, the marriage is not celebrated within three months, the notice given and all proceedings arising therefrom are considered null and void. In fact, interested persons, in order to have a civil marriage by notice should stay in Cyprus for about 20 days.

(e) In urgent cases, however, or if they so wish, the interested persons may apply to the Marriage Officer to fix an earlier date, by paying advanced fees. In this case the marriage can be celebrated within 2-3 working days. The formalities prescribed in paragraphs 2 (a)(b) and (c) above also apply in this case.

Persons under eighteen years of age

If either party to the intended marriage, not being a widower or a widow, is under eighteen years of age, the written consent of the father, or if he is dead or incapable of consenting, of the mother or, if both are dead or incapable of consenting, of the lawful guardian of such party, must be produced to the Marriage Officer on their application.

Religious ceremony

A civil marriage may be celebrated either by the Marriage Officer, or by a Registered Minister of Religion at his church. In this case all the same procedure should also be followed at the municipality, but the religious ceremony can be held at a church. All necessary arrangements with the Registered Minister and the church should be carried out by the interested persons.

It should be noted that the ministers of any religion or any other denomination must be registered/recorded in a special register (upon their application) kept by the Ministry of Interior.
Certificate of marriage

The couple is supplied with a certificate of marriage by the Marriage Officer, but if they want to secure one or more certified copies of the certificate they can apply to the Marriage Officer or to the Ministry of Interior.

Copy to be forwarded to the embassy

It should also be pointed out that, according to the Law, if either of the parties to the intended marriage is a subject of a foreign country having an Embassy or a Consulate in Cyprus, the Marriage Officer shall forward to the Embassy or the Consulate of such country in Cyprus a certified copy of the certificate of marriage.