Explanation of why George Clooney has two wedding ceremonies

Ok, this has been explained several times already but it seems some people are still struggling with this, so here goes:

Why did George Clooney have two wedding ceremonies?
Getting married is a legal matter nowadays and has nothing to do with any religious authorities.  This means that in order to get married legally you have to be married by a legally authorised official AND get all the right paperwork signed off and stamped.  In most countries this legal bit takes place during the wedding ceremony itself.  It seems that in Italy, however, the legal bit can only be done in an official governmental office.  

Even in Venice, government offices aren't the most stunning of locations for weddings (although the one they're going to tomorrow looks rather grand to me) so I guess they decided to separate the two events: the wedding ceremony on Saturday and the legal bit on Monday.  

Quite why they decided to do it that way round is a mystery to me because all the couples I know have done the legal bit first and then the grand ceremony later but anyway that's their decision and I'm sure it makes sense to them.

Technically they're not legally married yet, but that's really just a technicality and they will be married legally tomorrow (Monday).  They've said their vows to each other, they've exchanged their rings, they've cut the wedding cake and they've partied the night away: to all intents and purposes they're husband and wife.

As a side note: all the couples I know who've had to split up their ceremony and legal ceremony to different days consider the wedding ceremony as their official wedding day.  On this I consider myself a little bit of an expert as I've spent the best part of a decade working in hotels where wonderful weddings were held on an almost daily basis, none of which were legal because we didn't have the authority to marry the couple.  Pretty much all of the couples we married had already done the legal stuff and all considered their ceremony at the hotel as their real wedding day.

Found this interesting bit

According to Corriere Della Sera, the Clooney-Alamuddin nuptials will not be recognized in Italy before being registered at city hall, which the couple is expected to do Monday at 1 PM at Ca'Farsetti. The couple’s extravaganza at the seven-star Aman Canal Grande Venice Resort Venice was officiated by former Rome-mayorWalter Veltroni, but is not recognized under Italian law.  


So they are not recognised under Italian law until Monday but if they have a marriage license from the UK or the US then they are legally married just not in Italy.  Maybe they have a UK one since thats where they were classed as resident for posting of the Bans.  Just a thought!

I think that they're not legally married anywhere in the world just yet.  Once they've got the paperwork done tomorrow, then they'll be legally married in Italy and everywhere else.  

In theory that's all that they'd have to do, but in reality they then need to register that paperwork in the US and UK.  That's to inform the authorities in their home countries that they're now married and not make the marriage legal in their home countries).

AFAIK they don't have a wedding licence from any other countries (the reporters got confused with the banns that Amal had to post and reported it as a wedding licence - which I guess it kind of is, but not in the sense we mean here).  

Of course it's perfectly possible they pulled a Brangelina and got a licence and officiant from the US to marry them and we just don't know about it.   I'm still trying to figure out how they got a US officiant to legally marry them in France but anyway, it seems they did it.

I seem to remember that before Kartrashians first wedding the officiant came to the house to had them sign the marriage license.  So apparently if you have money you can get it done at your convenience.

Couples may consider their wedding the one they plan but the government only considers the one where the paperwork is done. To have the civil ceremony they had to file papers with the U.S embassy for the wedding. The Italian license will is valid in the U.S. They had to get a special stamp for the license once that is put on tomorrow they are legal in the U.S.

There is it seems a lot of paper work to do for them to marry in Italy.

Yes, a definite downside to marrying abroad! Although I guess they had people to arrange all that for them.

As for Kardashian getting their license at home. They probably had a confidential license. Which means your personal information is kept private. Any one can get this license.