Marrying at the town hall in Ghent
What is known about costs, booking and the declaration in Ghent, with official sources and explicit notes about missing information.
Go to the steps and document checklist →
Elian Van Cutsem, founder of Ringske
General Belgian rules
Marriage declaration in Ghent: step by step
Reserving a date, having your file checked and signing the declaration are separate steps. Here is what to arrange and in which order.
-
1. Check where to file your declaration
Start with the civil registry of the municipality where one of you is registered. Do you both live abroad? First confirm which Belgian municipality can handle your file.
-
2. Request your wedding date and start the file
Have the date confirmed before making other bookings final. A date request is not the formal declaration. Also ask when all documents must be submitted.
What Ghent specifically asks
Reserve the date up to a year ahead. The declaration follows separately.
-
3. Have your documents checked
Use the checklist below to prepare. Ask which records the municipality obtains itself and which you must supply. Only order foreign records after the municipality has confirmed its requirements.
What Ghent specifically asks
Bring a valid identity document. You do not need to provide a birth certificate already available in Belgium.
-
4. Make the formal marriage declaration
Vlaanderen.be describes the general window as six calendar months to fourteen days before the wedding. Local instructions may differ. Both partners declare together; if one cannot attend, ask for the required consent or power-of-attorney form beforehand.
What Ghent specifically asks
Declare by appointment between six months and at least six weeks before the wedding.
-
5. Check the confirmation and complete the file
Check the date, time, venue, any payments and your witnesses’ details. Keep the municipality’s confirmation. Have any change of date or circumstances checked again; do not assume an automatic extension.
Which documents do you need?
This is general preparation, not a personal document list issued by Ghent. Your nationality, birthplace, residence and previous marriages determine which additional records are required.
For each partner
- A valid identity document.
- A birth certificate: the municipality obtains it if you were born in Belgium or the certificate has been transcribed here.
- Evidence of unmarried status or dissolution of a previous marriage, if the municipality does not have that information in its registers.
Foreign documents or residence abroad
- First ask the civil registry for a personal document list.
- Not registered in the population or foreigners register? Also allow for proof of nationality, marital status and principal residence.
- Confirm how recent documents must be and whether legalisation, an apostille or a sworn translation is needed. This depends on the document and country.
One partner cannot attend
- Ask for the local consent or power-of-attorney form.
- Confirm whether an identity document copy, legalisation of the signature or a translation is also required.
Witnesses and a marriage contract
- Witnesses are optional: zero to four adults for the couple together. Ask which details the municipality needs.
- A marriage contract is optional. A notary’s certificate is no longer required for the declaration; the notary registers the contract.
Calculate the general declaration window
Dates use calendar months. They are only kept in this shareable link; nothing is sent to us.
- General window: from
- General window: by
This is Vlaanderen.be’s general window, not confirmation of an appointment or local deadline. Follow the municipal instructions above; earlier notification or file preparation may be required.
Get started in Ghent
Use the official instructions to start the declaration or book an appointment. Cannot find your situation? Ask the civil registry to confirm:
- How do we reserve a date and when must we open the file?
- Which records do you obtain and which must we provide?
- Can we declare online, and by when must everything be signed?
These are general contact details for the local administration. Ask to be referred to the civil registry if necessary.
Sources for the general preparation
Ceremony, costs and practical arrangements in Ghent
- Free
- Wednesday
- Paid
- €333 (formal ceremony)
- Date, appointment or declaration
- at least 6 weeks ahead
On Wednesdays the ceremony is free; it takes about ten minutes. A formal ceremony in the town hall (Friday and Saturday) or in the garden of St Peter's Abbey (Friday, from 1 May to 30 September) costs €333, a wedding in the Gravensteen castle (Friday) €841. A wedding booklet costs €28 (city of Ghent ).
Ghent is stricter than the law: the declaration has to be filed at least six weeks before the wedding, by appointment at the Stadskantoor (city of Ghent ). You can book the day and time up to a year ahead, but a booking is not a declaration. During the Gentse Feesten you cannot marry, and from 8 November 2027 to the end of February 2028 weddings move to the Trouwkapel during renovation, for at most 70 people.
This information was previously checked on 6 November 2026. The new source review could not reconfirm every local detail. Ask the municipality to confirm fees, available venues and deadlines for your date.
What is the same everywhere
Vlaanderen.be describes the general marriage declaration window as six calendar months to fourteen days before the wedding. Some municipalities describe a wider local declaration window; follow their instructions. A free ceremony does not mean that the file or wedding booklet is also free.
Everything else differs: on which days and at what times you can marry, when it is free, what a Saturday costs, whether you can marry outdoors or in a castle, and whether the city is stricter than the law. Ghent wants the declaration at least six weeks ahead, Hasselt three weeks. In most cities you can book a year ahead.
If one of you does not speak Dutch, in Flanders you bring an interpreter and pay them yourselves: see marrying as a foreigner.
The steps in order, from the window to the documents, are in the marriage declaration checklist. What a city itself asks for the deadline or the ceremony is on its page here, not in that checklist.
Neighbouring municipalities and districts