Our Story
Where to begin?
Sometimes it’s easier to learn how to do something by just learning what others did. So here is our story, in its simplest form, trying to give all the details and mistakes we made. To start, I proposed to my future wife while we were both in Italy, not knowing how to even get married at the time. She was Italian, and I was American, and both had no idea how much trouble it would be from start to finish. For us the first step after I proposed was to google “how to get married in Italy” which offered us various answers, often none applying to our situation. In our circumstances, we decided it would be best for me to return to America, and for her to remain in Italy while we figured this all out.
I emailed the Italian consulate for my region in America. For my state, the consulate was located in Detroit. In my email, I asked for information on the requirements to get married. Unfortunately, they would answer each of my emails 3-4 days after I sent them, I tried to be as clear and straightforward as possible although they asked many questions before giving the answers I needed. Finally, they gave me a rough guide and an idea of everything I needed.
They told me I had to go to the Consulate in Detroit and receive an “atto notorio” (a sworn document) that I would then bring to Italy. They also told me I needed to bring a bunch of Necessary Documents. So I started calling everyone I knew who had a passport (a key detail that I had to ask many times to find out about) and got together a crew of friends willing to go all the way to Detroit with me. During this time I somehow had managed to lose my passport, where it disappeared to we shall probably never know, and this made everyone panic. I quickly reported the loss and asked for a replacement, I hoped that it would arrive before my appointment in Detroit.
