Getting married in Belgium
Booking your wedding date at the town hall in Belgium
Booking a wedding date with your town in Belgium takes two steps. First you reserve a day and a time. Many towns let you do that up to a year ahead. Then comes the marriage declaration, the legal notice that you intend to marry. That only fits in a shorter window: according to Vlaanderen.be , six months before the wedding at the earliest and fourteen days at the latest. A reservation is not a declaration. Below is how Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges, Hasselt and a few other towns handle it, each with the town's own page as the source.
Elian Van Cutsem, founder of Ringske
A reservation is not the declaration
Ghent puts it plainly: a reservation is not yet a marriage declaration, says the City of Ghent . A reservation means the town keeps a day and a time free for you. Nothing more. Nothing has been checked yet, there is no record, and the marriage has not been legally announced.
The declaration is the official step. You tell the registrar (the ambtenaar van de burgerlijke stand) that you intend to marry, and the town checks that everything is in order. Vlaanderen.be sets the window: six months before the planned wedding date at the earliest, fourteen days at the latest. You go together, or one of you goes with a power of attorney from the other. What to bring and how it works is on the marriage declaration page and in the marriage declaration checklist.
Some towns count that window more precisely. The City of Antwerp says you can marry from the fourteenth day after the declaration, until six months after that fourteenth day at the latest. That is why Bruges, Leuven and Lokeren give "six months and fourteen days" before the wedding as the earliest moment. If you count with six months, you are always safe.
A town can also be stricter at the other end of the window. Ghent wants the declaration at least six weeks before the wedding (the City of Ghent ). Hasselt asks for it between six months and three weeks ahead, says the City of Hasselt . Count on the legal fourteen days there and you are too late. So always check what your own town asks, and treat the reservation and the declaration as two tasks, each with its own date.
How far ahead can you book?
No law says how early you can reserve a date with your town. Each town decides. Ghent lets you reserve a day and time up to one year ahead (the City of Ghent ). In Bruges you take an option on a location, date and time a year ahead, according to the City of Bruges . Hasselt allows an option from one year before the wedding date (the City of Hasselt ). A year is also what the City of Mechelen , the City of Turnhout , the City of Aalst and the City of Lokeren say.
Ghent, Aalst, Lokeren and Mechelen state explicitly that it cannot be earlier. So a year is not advice to wait, it is where the calendar starts. Once your date is fixed, find out on which day your town opens its calendar for that date, and put that day in your own calendar. Unsure about the exact day? Ask the civil registry office.
Some towns only fix the date at the declaration. In Leuven you set the date together with the town during the declaration, says the City of Leuven . In Antwerp you state in the declaration which day you want to marry. You do not choose the time there: the town confirms it after the declaration, according to the district of Antwerp . Those pages do not mention a separate reservation a year ahead. There, the earliest moment is the start of the declaration window.
A town can also set a last moment for the reservation, apart from the declaration. Lokeren accepts a reservation one year ahead at the earliest and six weeks ahead at the latest (the City of Lokeren ). If you decide late, you look at two limits: the one for the reservation and the one for the declaration.
How to book: by email, by phone, by appointment or online
The method differs per town as well. In Ghent you first check the wedding calendar for free slots. Then you email your choice to the city, with a mobile number and both your national register numbers, and you get a confirmation by email (Ghent's page on where to marry ). You can also book at the desk. Note a Ghent rule: your time slot has to connect to another slot that is already taken. A free hour in the calendar is not always an hour you can have.
Bruges works with an option. If you are both Belgian and at least one of you lives in Bruges, you register the marriage declaration online. Otherwise you make an appointment at the Huis van de Bruggeling, where you choose the location and the date and pay at the desk (the City of Bruges ).
In Hasselt you take the option by phone or by appointment with the civil registry office (Burgerlijke Stand). The declaration can then be done online, on the website or in the MijnHasselt app, but only if the date has already been reserved (the City of Hasselt ).
Turnhout only takes reservations by phone, through the civil registry office (the City of Turnhout ). Lokeren does the opposite: you reserve by email with the civil affairs office, and booking by phone is not possible (the City of Lokeren ). In Aalst you email your preferred date and time, your names, national register numbers and addresses to the city (the City of Aalst ). If one of you is not Belgian or was born abroad, you make an appointment in Aalst instead.
Mechelen starts with an appointment at the civil registry office in the Huis van de Mechelaar. There you hear which documents you need, and the reservation can only be made once your file is complete (the City of Mechelen ). If you want to book early in Mechelen, gather the documents early too.
What helps almost everywhere: a first and a second choice of day and time, and your national register numbers at hand. Ask for a confirmation on paper or by email, and keep it with the venue's quote.
Which days and times you can marry
Each town picks its own wedding slots. A few examples. In Bruges you marry in the Gothic Hall of the city hall on Tuesday morning from 10 to 12, on Friday afternoon from 13:30 to 16:30 and on Saturday morning from 10 to 12 (the City of Bruges ). Leuven holds weddings on Wednesday between 11 and 12, on Friday between 14 and 15 and on Saturday between 11 and 13 (the City of Leuven ). Mechelen on Wednesday from 10:30 to 11:30, on Friday from 14 to 15 and on Saturday from 10:30, not on Sundays or public holidays (the City of Mechelen ).
Turnhout holds weddings on Tuesday from 14 to 15:30, on Friday from 11 to 11:30 and from 14 to 15:30, and on Saturday from 9:45 to 11:45 (the City of Turnhout ). Aalst on Tuesday from 14 to 16, on Friday from 13 to 15:30 and on Saturday from 9:30 to 13 (the City of Aalst ). In the district of Antwerp you can marry on any day except Sundays and public holidays (the district of Antwerp ).
In Ghent you marry at the city hall on Wednesday, and on Friday and Saturday for a formal ceremony (praalhuwelijk). The Gravensteen castle is available on Friday, the garden of St Peter's Abbey on Friday between 1 May and 30 September. During the Gentse Feesten you cannot marry in Ghent (Ghent's page on where to marry ). Leuven excludes Saturday 13 March 2027, on top of the city's closing days.
For your planning this means the town hall slot is a narrow block, on a few days of the week. The party fits around it, not the other way round. What each slot costs and when it is free is listed town by town in town hall weddings, town by town.
Which town you marry in
You do not choose the town freely. You make the declaration at the civil registry of the town where one of you lives, meaning registered in the population, foreigners' or waiting register (Vlaanderen.be ). That is also where you marry. If Noor lives in Ghent and Bram in Bruges, they choose between Ghent and Bruges. A beautiful town hall in a third town is not an option, not even if their parents live there.
The towns say so themselves. In Leuven you can marry if you or your partner officially lives in Leuven (the City of Leuven ). In Lokeren if at least one of the partners officially lives in Lokeren (the City of Lokeren ). In Bruges at least one of the partners has to be registered in Bruges (the City of Bruges ).
Antwerp adds a layer: each district arranges weddings itself. In the district of Antwerp you marry if you or your partner officially lives in the district at the time of the declaration (the district of Antwerp ). The declaration itself can be made at any desk, including in another district than the one you marry in (The City of Antwerp ). Moving house? Check where one of you is registered at the time of the declaration, and ask the town if a move falls close to it.
If you both live abroad, Vlaanderen.be lists three options: the last place of residence of one of you, the residence of a blood relative up to the second degree, or the place of birth of one of you.
Venue or town hall: which comes first?
The town hall and the venue keep two calendars that know nothing of each other. You need both on the same day, or deliberately on two days. This is the order with the least risk.
First pick two or three possible dates. Then check with the town which of those days have a wedding slot, and when the calendar for those dates opens. Ask the venue for an option on those dates, with a clear deadline for how long the option runs. Book with the town as soon as you can. Sign with the venue once the town has confirmed too, or accept knowingly that you will fit the town hall around the venue afterwards.
A venue can sometimes be booked earlier than a town allows. Do not wait for the town calendar to open before you start looking: the venue you want may be gone by then. In towns that only fix the date at the declaration, like Leuven and Antwerp, this is unavoidable. There the venue is booked long before the town hall. Keep a plan B: the civil wedding on another wedding day in the same week, and the party on the day you already have.
Count the time between the two as well. A morning slot at the town hall and a reception at a castle an hour's drive away decide together how the day runs. Ask the venue from what time you can get in, and until when. What else to ask a venue is in the guide to wedding venues.
Marrying at a special location run by the town is something else again. The Gravensteen and St Peter's Abbey in Ghent, or the beach at Zeebrugge in Bruges, are town locations with their own days. For the Gravensteen and St Peter's Abbey, Ghent requires a site visit at least four weeks before the wedding (Ghent's page on where to marry ). The beach at Zeebrugge is available on one Friday morning a month, from April to September (the City of Bruges ).
Saturdays and popular dates
A Saturday has few wedding slots. In Bruges and Leuven it is a two-hour block on Saturday. In many towns Saturday also costs more than a weekday, see town hall weddings, town by town. A symbolic date or a Saturday in wedding season can fill up fast, sometimes on the day the calendar opens. No public figures exist on how fast that happens. So do not count on an average, count on your town's rules.
Preparation helps. Know when the calendar opens and be there that day. Keep a second choice ready, on another day or at another time. And ask yourselves whether the civil wedding has to be on the day of the party. A Friday or a weekday at the town hall, with a small group, and the party on Saturday is an ordinary choice. In Ghent Wednesday is free, in Bruges Tuesday morning.
If you pick a date in a holiday or around a public holiday, check what the town does that day. Ghent rules out the Gentse Feesten, Mechelen Sundays and public holidays, and so does Antwerp. A date that is free in the venue's calendar is not yet a wedding slot at the town.
Two tasks, two dates
Put the reservation and the declaration in your planning as two separate tasks. The reservation belongs with the first decisions, together with the venue. The declaration goes in when the window opens, with a margin for your town's deadline. The full order is in the month-by-month timeline, the to-do list on your date in the wedding checklist. Just engaged and no date yet? Start with just engaged, what now.
In Ringske you choose the Town of the town hall under Settings → Wedding. For the towns Ringske supports, the standard tasks for booking and the declaration then follow the local deadlines. If your town is not listed, check its deadlines yourselves and adjust the due date.