Getting Married in Lovely Denmark: A Step-by-Step Guide (Part 1)

The Background Story

Getting married in lovely Denmark, Why Not? I married my best friend a couple of months ago in the beautiful city of Copenhagen. As soon as I shared the happy news on Instagram, my DMs were flooded with congratulatory messages – as well as tons of questions haha! Since I’m not super active on my personal account, except when I travel, my 10 million followers were like, “Wait, I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend, and all of a sudden you’re married?!”. And among the most FAQs were:

• “Why Copenhagen?”
• “Is your husband Danish?”
• “Why not in Indonesia?”

With “WHY COPENHAGEN?” being the top question lol. So, I thought I’d share some details about why we chose Copenhagen and how to get married there, especially for other mixed-nationality and mixed-religion couples (because, yes, sadly, it’s still a challenge in Indonesia when you’re of different faiths) – so here we go.

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Why Married in Copenhagen 

The Danish government has a super liberal approach to marriage laws, allowing anyone from any country to legally get married there. If you need a visa to enter Schengen countries, a standard tourist visa will do. And if you’re one of the lucky ones who don’t need a visa, all you need is your passport – easy peasy lemon squeezy!

We ruled out Indonesia because the paperwork is just way too complicated. As for the UK, where my husband is from, that was also no-go. Getting married there would require a fiancé visa, which is not only pricey but also takes ages to process.

We actually found out about Copenhagen from an article my mother-in-law sent us on WhatsApp. And, in true Gemini fashion, I impulsively said, “Let’s do it!” – so we did.

We worked with www.gettingmarriedindenmark.com, they are superstars!

The Wedding Agency in Denmark

Since we’re not exactly fans of admin work and are super busy with  work and daily jiu-jitsu training, we decided to hire an agency for the convenience, time-saving benefits, and better chances of approval (since they know what they’re doing!). We worked with Getting Married in Denmark.

All we had to do was send one email, and they were incredibly responsive. They even scheduled a video call to walk us through everything in detail. They took care of all our paperwork, making sure it met the Danish government’s standards, submitted everything on our behalf, and even booked our chosen city hall for the ceremony. They also offer other services, like document apostille, hair and makeup, flowers, etc. Basically, you can tailor everything to your preferences and needs. But since we were aiming for a super simple ceremony, we didn’t need any of those extras.

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Essential Documents for Marrying in Denmark

All you need to submit to the Danish government are:

Photos of your passports

Yes, the Danish government prefers photos, not scans, so the details, including the holograms, are clear. They need pictures of all the pages, even the blank ones without stamps. Just a heads-up: they’re very specific about how the photos should be taken. They need natural light, all pages should be flat and clean, and no fingers should be holding the sides.

Schengen visa

If you need a Schengen visa to travel to the country, it’s best to apply well in advance to stay organised. Your application can’t be processed without it, and popular city halls like Copenhagen City Hall can get fully booked quickly.

P.s. They don’t mind which country you enter the Schengen area from, it doesn’t have to be Denmark. I entered through The Netherlands.

Relationship document

They basically want to make sure you’re in a genuine relationship and have actually met in person, not just in it for the spouse visa. You can put together a Power Point presentation with all your photos and milestones. Take screenshots from your phone with the metadata showing the dates the photos were taken. If you’re in a long-distance relationship and travel frequently to see each other, adding supporting documents like flight tickets can really strengthen your application.

Next stages

Now that the headachey part is done, you can just send everything over to the wedding agency and let them work their magic. The Danish government has a strict rule that they must approve or reject everything within five working days, so that part was quick. I’ll share more about the next steps in part 2 so you can have a break from reading and digest this information first. Stay tune at Kata-bella.com! 😉