Belgium wedding checklist for 2027: what to arrange when

More than a year ahead

Start with the shape of the day, not with the typeface on the invitation. In Belgium the civil marriage is the wedding in law. A church blessing, a ceremony somewhere else or a party comes after, sometimes on another day. Under article 21 of the Constitution the civil marriage comes before the religious blessing. The same day is fine, as long as the civil part is first. That is on the Senate's site.

Then make a rough guest list. One row per invitation, with the number of people, is enough. That count decides which venues can still take you, what the caterer has to cover, and whether a walking dinner is more realistic than a seated one. Decide at the same time who pays what: the two of you, your parents, or a mix. That conversation belongs at the start, before any quote is signed. How to separate the amounts is on what a wedding in Belgium costs and in the wedding budget calculator.

Set the date and the venue once the count exists. For a Saturday between May and September, ask a year ahead. That is not a law. It is the order the Ringske task list starts from: date and venue sit a year before the wedding, because a sought-after room can already be full. Ask in writing what is included, until what time, and whether the venue's music licence covers your party. That last question comes back in the final month.

From twelve to nine months

Reserve the day and the time at the town hall once your date is fixed. In Ghent that can be up to a year ahead, at the desk or by email. The city explicitly says a reservation is not yet the marriage declaration. The declaration comes later, in a shorter window. Other towns work differently: in Leuven the date is only fixed during the declaration itself. Check your own town's site, and do not treat a reservation as the legal notice.

In these months you also book the people who have a diary: photographer, caterer and music. Plan a tasting and ask whether dietary needs and children's portions are in the price. For guests coming from far away, or a date in a holiday, this is also when save-the-dates go out. Your wedding site can already be right: time, address, and later the link guests reply on.

Think about witnesses, without handing in their names yet. Witnesses are not required. You can choose none to four, for the couple together, and they must be adults. That is how belgium.be and the city of Ghent put it. The town asks for their details at the declaration, not a year ahead.

From nine to six months

A dress and a suit need lead time and fittings. Start before the last winter, especially if something is made to measure. Flowers, hired kit (a tent, tables, glassware, a toilet trailer) and rooms for guests belong in the same stretch: they depend on the headcount and on the venue.

This is also the quiet moment to talk to a notary, if you want a marriage contract. A contract is not required. Without one, the statutory regime applies, belgium.be writes. If you want one, you make it before the wedding. The notary registers it in the central register of marriage contracts. The town no longer needs a certificate, according to Vlaanderen.be. The amounts, where a source publishes them, are on what a wedding in Belgium costs.

If you ask someone to host or to speak, do it now. That is different from the registrar: the registrar performs the legal marriage. The speaker belongs to the party, or to a ceremony of your own after the town hall.

The marriage-declaration window

The marriage declaration is the official notice that you want to marry. Vlaanderen.be puts the window like this: you can file it at the earliest six months and at the latest fourteen days before the planned wedding date. belgium.be says it from the other side: anyone who wants to marry declares that at least fourteen days before the planned date, and the ceremony takes place at the earliest fourteen days and at the latest six months after that declaration. The same window, two wordings. It is not a date you pick outside those bounds.

Many towns ask for the declaration earlier than those fourteen days, because they want time to check the papers. Ghent asks for it at least six weeks and at most six months before the wedding date. That is a rule of that city, not of all of Belgium. The legal floor stays fourteen days, unless your town publishes a longer one. Always check there too.

A worked example, for a wedding on Friday 21 May 2027. Six months before is 21 November 2026: the declaration cannot be earlier, according to Vlaanderen.be. Fourteen days before is Friday 7 May 2027: that is the legal latest. Six weeks before, Ghent's term, is Friday 9 April 2027. Marry on another day and those three dates move with you. The wedding checklist works the window out on your date. The deadline you see there follows Ghent's example (six weeks). The legal latest stays fourteen days.

Where you file: with the registrar of the town where one of you lives, meaning where you are entered in the population register, the register of foreign nationals or the waiting register. You marry in that town too. If you both live abroad, Vlaanderen.be names three options: the last Belgian address of either of you, the address of a blood relative up to the second degree, or the Belgian place of birth of either of you. You file together, or one of you with a power of attorney. If you are registered in Belgium, you usually bring your identity card. If the birth certificate is available in Belgium, the town requests it.

The declaration is valid for six months. After that you file a new one. The city of Ghent writes that the public prosecutor can in some cases shorten the term, extend it, or grant an exemption. Do not plan on that. The papers, the witnesses and what happens to the marriage certificate afterwards are on the page about the marriage declaration.

From six to three months

Once the window is open, book the appointment for the declaration. Do not leave it until the last legal day. Towns need time, and a power of attorney or a foreign document makes it longer. Foreign papers often need legalisation or an apostille, and a sworn translation if required. What that costs when a certificate has to leave the country is on what a wedding in Belgium costs.

In these months you design the invitations and order the rings. Engraving often takes a few weeks, so the rings do not belong in the last week. The cake, transport and the honeymoon can be fixed now too. Hair and makeup: book a trial, not only the morning itself.

Put one link or one QR code on the card, not a separate code per guest. Guests look up their name and reply per moment: the civil ceremony, another ceremony, the reception, the party. Someone can come to the reception and skip the dinner. That is ordinary in Flanders, and it is why a guest list per invitation works and a list with a single yes or no does not.

The last month

Send the invitations around three months ahead if you have not yet, and then follow up the replies. Anyone who has not answered gets a kind reminder. You need the numbers per moment for the caterer and the venue. Dietary wishes go out with the menu, not the evening before.

Ask the venue whether their music licence covers your party. In its tariff list for towns, Unisono writes that music in the private sphere needs no licence, and does once you play it in a public place. A DJ, a playlist or a band in a hired hall often falls under that, and the venue's licence does not automatically cover every party. The figures Unisono publishes, and what they are not, are on what a wedding in Belgium costs. Sort it a month ahead, not on the day: that same tariff list asks you to request the licence at least five days before the music is used (Unisono's tariff list).

Write the run of the day: times, who stands where, a plan if it rains, the phone numbers of the venue, photographer and caterer. Choose the readings and the music for the ceremony. If there is a seated dinner, the seating plan comes in now, about three weeks ahead. No fixed seats, because you are doing a walking dinner, a buffet or only a reception? Skip that task. What a plan looks like in Ringske is in the guide to the seating plan.

Schedule the balances owed to vendors. A quote is not a payment. For each expense, note when the rest is due, so the last month is not a surprise. The final fitting of a dress or suit belongs in the same weeks.

The last two weeks

Give the final numbers to the caterer and the venue. Ten days ahead is a common arrangement, but your caterer's quote is the one that counts. Confirm the time and the address with every vendor, even if that was already in an email months ago.

If the marriage declaration has not happened, you are against the legal latest. Fourteen days before the wedding is the last day according to Vlaanderen.be and belgium.be. Ghent will not take it then: there the term was six weeks. A town that still has to request documents often cannot do a declaration on the fourteenth day. This is the moment to call, not to hope the window is still open.

Set the rings aside and agree with the witnesses who holds what. Make a small emergency kit: plasters, needle and thread, safety pins, a painkiller, a charger. Tell anyone giving a speech how long it is. The day itself runs on the schedule, not on new decisions.

After the wedding

On the day of the civil marriage the registrar draws up the marriage certificate. That is the proof you are married, and it is different from the declaration, which came before. You request a copy or an extract from the town afterwards. If the certificate has to go abroad, an apostille or a legalisation often comes first. The price is on what a wedding in Belgium costs, the steps on the page about the marriage declaration.

The days after are practical. Hired kit goes back. Thank-you cards and a note to the vendors can wait until things are quiet again. A month is a fair term. You share photos when you have them, not because a checklist still wants a box ticked that evening.

Do not plan a task called "change our name" as if it belonged to the declaration. The FPS Foreign Affairs writes that a marriage under Belgian law has in principle no effect on the surname: you keep the name you had before (the FPS Foreign Affairs). A name changed abroad by the marriage can, since 1 January 2018, be recognised in some cases. That is an exception, not a step on the checklist.

One list that moves with the date

This order is the skeleton. Your wedding has its own date, its own town and its own guest count. The wedding checklist puts over forty Belgian tasks on that date: a fixed day, or a distance from the wedding, such as six weeks before. If the date moves, the tasks move. The marriage declaration is in there with the window from this guide.

On the go that works best on your phone. The wedding planner on your phone is the same planning, on every device, for both of you. Guests need no app and no account: they open the link on the card. Planning is free. Putting the wedding site online is a separate step, with the amounts on the Ringske pricing page.