After the wedding in Belgium: marriage certificate, your name and thank-you cards

Requesting your marriage certificate: where is it?

On the day of the civil wedding, the registrar draws up the marriage certificate (huwelijksakte). It is the proof that you are married, and it is not the same as the marriage declaration, which came before. According to Vlaanderen.be ↗, the certificate records your surnames, first names, dates and places of birth, the date of the marriage, the name one of you may have chosen after the ceremony, and the same details for your witnesses, if you had any.

There is no paper register any more. The law of 18 June 2018 ↗ provides that civil status records are drawn up in dematerialised form in the civil status records database, the Databank Akten Burgerlijke Stand or DABS. That part of the law has applied since 31 March 2019. If you married after that date, your certificate exists only digitally. A record from before that date may not be available digitally yet. Some towns only add an old record to the database when someone requests it.

You never request the record itself, but a full copy (afschrift) or an extract (uittreksel). A full copy shows the original details of the record and the history of the person's civil status: whatever changed later is included. An extract shows only the current details, without that history. Ask the organisation that wants the document which of the two it needs before you request anything.

Not everyone may request a marriage certificate. You may, and so may your legal representative. Your spouse or legal cohabitant, your parents or children and your heirs may only do so if they show a legitimate interest. Once the record is more than 75 years old, anyone may. If you request it for someone else, you bring a power of attorney, a copy of their identity card and your own identity card.

Requesting a copy or an extract

There are three ways. At the town hall counter, with your identity card or residence permit. Online with your eID, through your town's e-loket or the certificates page of Mijn Burgerprofiel, says Vlaanderen.be ↗. And through Just-on-web ↗, the digital portal of the Federal Public Service Justice.

Just-on-web is the shortest route. You can request copies and extracts of civil status records there, including the marriage certificate, and according to Justice you can in principle download them immediately. Both types of document are free of charge and legally valid. Sometimes a record is not available yet, because it is still on paper at a town hall. You then ask that town to add it to the database. Once that is done, you get a message in your eBox.

You do not have to go back to the town where you married. A Belgian record that is in the DABS can be issued by the town that drew it up, by any other Belgian town, and, for people registered abroad, by the Belgian consulate, says the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs ↗. Whether your town charges for a copy at the counter is on its own website.

Because the record is digital, there is no need to order a stack of copies in advance. Request a new one whenever someone asks for it. That way you always have the current details, and no paper going out of date in a drawer.

Using your marriage certificate abroad

If the certificate has to go to another country, for an embassy, a foreign register or an employer across the border, it usually first needs a legalisation or an apostille, and sometimes a translation, says Vlaanderen.be ↗. Which of the two you need, or neither, depends on the country. The Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs ↗ has a simulator that tells you per destination country. Use it rather than ordering an apostille just in case.

Belgians can request a legalisation or apostille for civil status records online, through e-Legalisation. Since 1 August 2026 it costs 25 euros per legalisation or apostille. That is per document: a copy of the marriage certificate and an extract from a birth certificate are twice 25 euros. Paper apostilles have not been issued since 1 May 2018; they are electronic only. At the consular counters you can only pay electronically.

Within the European Union it is simpler. According to Your Europe ↗, a public document about a marriage, a name or civil status does not need an apostille to be used in another EU country. Instead of a translation, you can ask the authority that issues the document, in this case the Belgian town, for a multilingual standard form. Only if the receiving authority still cannot understand the content may it, as an exception, ask for a certified translation.

If one of you is not Belgian, that partner's country may also want the marriage in its own register. Ask that country's embassy or consulate what they need, preferably before the wedding. More on international marriages is in marrying in Belgium when one of you is not Belgian. If one of you is Dutch, also read marrying in Belgium as a Dutch citizen.

Changing your name after marriage in Belgium

In short: it does not happen. On its page about names and first names ↗, the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs says that under Belgian law a marriage in principle has no effect on the surname of Belgian spouses. You keep the name you had before the wedding. There is no form to fill in and no appointment at the town hall.

You do not need a new identity card either. The front of the eID shows your name, place and date of birth, sex and nationality, as Vlaanderen.be ↗ lists. None of these change when you marry, and there is no field for your partner's name.

Using your partner's name at work is possible, with one condition. Article 216 of the old Civil Code ↗ says a spouse may only use the other spouse's name in professional dealings with their consent. That consent can only be withdrawn for serious reasons, and a withdrawal can be challenged before the family court. Your legal name does not change.

There is one exception, and it concerns other countries. Since 1 January 2018, Belgium recognises a name that changed abroad through marriage if it matches the law of a country whose nationality you hold, or of the country where you habitually live, the same Foreign Affairs page on names and first names ↗ says. According to Vlaanderen.be ↗, the marriage certificate also records the name a spouse chose after the ceremony, where that applies.

If one of you is Dutch, Dutch rules apply to that partner as well. The Dutch government ↗ says that married people may use their partner's surname, that you can have that name registered with your municipality in the Basisregistratie Personen (BRP), and that your official surname does not change. Your partner's consent is not required.

What does this mean for your planning? Do not put a "change name" task on your list. The default wedding checklist in Ringske deliberately has none.

And your children's surname?

You do not choose it at the wedding, but with your first child. According to Vlaanderen.be ↗, parents choose freely: the father's surname, the mother's, or both names in the order they prefer. For the first child you have together, both parents sign a declaration of name choice at the civil registry. That choice applies to all children you have together afterwards, and it cannot be undone.

If you do not choose, the child automatically gets the name of the father or the co-mother. If you disagree, the child gets the name of the father or co-mother and that of the mother, in alphabetical order. So it is something to discuss before the birth, not before the wedding.

Thank-you cards: when and for whom

There is no rule, only custom and common sense. Send the cards as soon as you have a photo you want to share, and do not wait months. A thank-you that arrives long after the wedding reads like a chore. Ringske's default checklist puts "Send thank-you cards" thirty days after the wedding date, together with "Thank your vendors". If your date moves, that task moves with it. If thirty days does not suit you, move it.

Who gets one? Everyone who came, and everyone who gave something. Those are not always the same people. An aunt who could not come but sent a gift belongs on the list. So does a colleague who only came to the reception. Think also of people who helped without sending an invoice: your witnesses, whoever helped decorate the venue, the neighbours who kept their driveway free.

One card per invitation is enough. A family of four gets one envelope, just as it got one invitation. If you sent your wedding invitations per family or per couple, you already have that list and can use it again.

Vendors you thank differently: an email or a card, and a review if they earned it. For a photographer or a caterer, a review means more than a card on the wall.

What to write on a thank-you card

Short and personal works best. A general text printed on the card, and one or two handwritten sentences per guest. Name the gift, or what the guest did. "Thank you for your gift" reads like a form. "Thank you for the cava, we opened it on our first evening home" does not. Do not mention an amount; say instead what the money will go towards.

A printed text, warm: "Thank you for sharing our day with us. Your laughter, your dancing and your gift mean we will be thinking back on it for a long time. Love, Lotte & Warre."

A printed text, simple: "Dear family and friends, thank you for coming, for your wishes and for your gift. It was a day we will never forget. Noor & Bram."

For those who could not come: "We missed you at our wedding. Your card and gift did arrive, and they made us very happy. When we see each other, we will show you the photos."

For a gift of money: "Thank you so much for your generous contribution. It is going towards our honeymoon, and we will send you a postcard from there." For your witnesses or helpers: "Without you, that day would never have gone so smoothly. Thank you for being there for us from morning to night."

Write in the guest's language. In a mixed family the printed text can be in two languages, and the handwritten line in the language of the person reading it. Ringske's guest list shows, per invitation, the language of their emails and link. It fills itself in as soon as they use the RSVP or address page.

A photo and the addresses

A photo from the day turns a card into a keepsake. Pick one where you both look good, or a group photo if there is one. Ask your photographer when a first selection could be ready, and check your contract for anything about using the photos in print. You do not have to wait for the full set.

Most of the work is in the addresses. You need them in one list, per invitation, with street, postcode and town. In Ringske's guest list, the postal address sits with each invitation. If some are missing, send your guests a link or a QR code: they look themselves up by name and fill in their postal address. An address you already have is never shown to them. They can only replace it.

Then you download the list for envelopes as a CSV, with only the guests who have a complete address. That list goes to the printer, or into a label template.

What Ringske does after the wedding

The dashboard has a Thank-yous page. It uses the same guest list; there is no second list to make. By default you see who said yes to at least one moment and has not been thanked yet. With "Also those who did not come" you also see who declined but still sent something. Per invitation you note what you received, and tick it off once the card is on its way. A missing address is flagged, and the Addresses for the cards button gives you the list for the envelopes.

Ticking off does not send a card or an email. It is a follow-up list. What you note about a gift is not visible to guests: it stays in your dashboard, not on the wedding site.

Your wedding website changes too. From 6 am the morning after the wedding, a thank-you to your guests appears at the top, and the RSVP disappears from the site. You write that text yourselves. Leave it empty and a short thank-you from Ringske appears instead. You can add a link to the photos, for example your photographer's online album or a shared folder. Anyone who still scans the QR code on the invitation does still land on the RSVP form.

That thank-you on the site does not replace a card. It is for everyone at once, the morning after the party. The card is for each guest on their own, with a line written only for them.