Have you found the person you want to spend your life with? Do you want to get married and have many questions about ’the most beautiful day of your life‘?
Then you've come to the right place. To make planning easier for you, you'll find basic information about getting married on the following pages.
You've already gotten past the most important part: choosing your partner! We can help you with almost everything else.
Our wedding rooms are: the wedding room in the Gründau Town Hall, Lieblos district; the Hall of Encounters in the Mittel-Gründau district; the wedding room or the terrace at Heckers in the Mittel-Gründau cadastral area; wedding rooms or the inner courtyard at Hofgut Hühnerhof in the Gettenbach district.
Even wedding ceremonies on Friday afternoons and Saturdays are no problem for us: just inquire about available dates.
Before whom can the marriage be concluded?
In Germany, a marriage may only be entered into before a registrar – with one or two witnesses present if desired (mandatory civil marriage). Exception: Fiancés, neither of whom is German, may also marry before a person duly authorized by the government of the state of which one of the fiancés is a national, in the form prescribed by the laws of that state.
At the beginning is the registration for the marriage, for which you should bring a few important documents. Before this crucial step, you should of course have agreed on this with your future spouse.
For early planning of your wedding, we will provide you with our wedding dates upon request by phone.
We will also explain your options for using names and how to proceed if you plan to marry outside of Gründau, in another municipality, or abroad.
Your intended marriage must be registered at the registry office within whose district you reside.
For simplification, you can already submit your desired wedding location, as well as the dates and documents required for the marriage eligibility check, via digital pre-registration.
The place where you register your marriage does not have to be the same place where your marriage will take place. In principle, you can marry in any registry office in Germany.
The marriage license is valid for six months.
However, an appointment reservation for the wedding can usually be made even before these six months. Please call us to discuss your desired appointment.
There is no legal requirement for witnesses to be present at a marriage ceremony. However, if you wish, you can appoint 1 or 2 people as witnesses.
Whether you want to have a common or separate family name in marriage can be decided when you get married or at a later time.
Documents for the marriage registration
German citizens born in Germany need the following documents:
If you are divorced or widowed (marriage in Germany), you will also need:
We can also request German civil status certificates by electronic data retrieval from the responsible registry office. In this case, you will not need to submit the certificate. However, we cannot estimate the processing time of other German registry offices in responding to the data retrieval.
If one or more of these conditions are not met, you will need the following documents:
if the main residence is not Gründau, a certificate of residence from the competent registration authority of your main residence, ‚to be presented to the registry office‘. This certificate should not be older than one month.
If you find yourself in this list, the documents mentioned are usually sufficient. However, in individual cases – unfortunately – further documents may still be required.
In the following cases, you should definitely inquire in person at the registry office:
We will review your documents after pre-registration and then contact you to schedule an in-person appointment to register your marriage. At this appointment, the documents must be presented in their original form, along with any missing documents. We will then discuss the details of the marriage with you and answer your questions. If only one partner can attend this appointment, we will need a Power of attorney the other person.
The office hours of the registry office are:
Monday - Friday: 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thursday: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Persons in a registered partnership can convert it into a marriage as of October 1, 2017. For this purpose, the partners must mutually declare in person and while both are present before a registrar that they wish to enter into a lifelong marriage with each other. If the partners have not yet had a common registered partnership name, they can determine a married name as part of the marriage ceremony.
Procedure
The affected partners report the intended conversion of their civil partnership into a marriage to the responsible registry office.
To register the marriage, both partners typically visit the responsible registry office together. If one of the partners is unable to attend, they can grant the other partner written authorization. The registry office requires the written authorization from the absent partner for this.
If both are prevented for an important reason, they can also register the conversion in writing or through a representative.
Who should I contact?
To the registry office within whose jurisdiction one of the partners has their residence (domicile or secondary residence) or habitual abode. If neither partner has a residence in Germany, the registry office at which the marriage is to be performed shall have jurisdiction.
Any German registry office is responsible for subsequently receiving declarations of marriage.
Prerequisites
The two life partners must live in a registered civil partnership and declare to each other, in person and in their simultaneous presence before a registrar, that they wish to lead a lifelong marriage with each other.
What documents are needed?
What fees are involved?
No fees will be charged, provided that the marriage takes place during the normal opening hours on the premises of the registry office.
If the declaration of conversion is to be made at the request of the life partners outside of the general office hours or outside of the registry office's premises, fees ranging from 63 to 94 Euros will apply (cf. numbers 61312 to 61322 of the administrative cost schedule of the administrative cost order for the business area of the Ministry of the Interior and Sports).
After the application has been made, the conversion (marriage) can take place from October 1, 2017:
Legal basis
What else should I know?
For the rights and obligations of registered partners, the date of establishment of the registered partnership is also decisive after the conversion of the registered partnership into a marriage.
The office hours of the registry office are:
Monday - Friday: 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thursday: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
You can determine a common married name when you get married.
However, the determination of the married name does not have to take place at the time of the marriage, but can also be made at a later date.
On May 1, 2025, the new law amending the law on married names, birth names, and international name law came into force. This creates numerous new possibilities for the use of names for spouses, registered partners, and children. Name changes under existing law are also possible in many cases.
The law generally applies to civil status events – for example, births or marriages – as of May 1, 2025. However, in certain cases, existing family names can also be adapted to the new legal situation.
For the submission of a name declaration, personal appearance at the registry office is generally required. Depending on the individual case, the consent of other persons may also be necessary.
For questions regarding the new name law, please feel free to contact us by email at standesamt@gruendau.de.
For better understanding, please find below two explanatory videos about the new name law (redirect to YouTube) and a brochure for download.
Wedding names FSBW Explainer Video - Name Rights in Marriage - YouTube
Children's names FSBW Explainer Video: Child's Name Rights
Brochure on Naming Law Name law
Subsequent determination of married name and double-barreled surname
If you have not chosen a joint married name at the time of your marriage, you can choose a married name during the marriage.
If a married name is chosen that is not your name, you can prepend or append your name to the new married name. You alone can then use a double-barreled name. You can reverse the prepending or appending of your name once.
If the married name already consists of a double name, no further explanation regarding the name can be provided.
You can only decide on the married name together. All name declarations must be made before the registrar.
If you have any further questions, please call us.
Wedding date
Marriages take place here Monday through Friday mornings.
Upon request of the couple, wedding ceremonies can also be performed on Thursdays at 3:00 PM, on Fridays from 12:00 PM, and on Saturdays, provided a registrar is available. The registrar will determine the time of the wedding ceremony.
Our fee overview also tells you what costs to expect.
Costs of getting married
A civil wedding isn't entirely free.
However, the costs cannot be specified as a flat rate. They depend on many individual questions, for example, whether one or more foreign rights need to be considered, how many documents you require, or whether you would like a family register.
As a general rule, you can expect to pay at least 120 Euros. Depending on your need for additional certificates, a family record book, or special requests, your wedding ceremony could cost about double that or more.
The wedding ceremony in the wedding room of the Gründau town hall does not incur any additional charges. If the wedding ceremony takes place outside the town hall, for example in the Halle der Begegnung, the Stahlwerk, the Hofgut Hühnerhof, or Hecker's, the fees listed in the fee schedule apply, and the rent for the venue, in the Stahlwerk, Hofgut, or Hecker's, is to be paid to the location.
Marriages solemnized abroad are also generally recognized if the wedding was performed by the competent authorities in the form customary and prescribed for the respective country.
You should inform yourself in good time about which documents you need for your marriage. The German consulates in the individual countries, as well as the embassy of the country concerned in the Federal Republic, can provide you with information.
Some states require a ‚certificate of no impediment to marriage‘ (Ehefähigkeitszeugnis), which is issued by your local civil registry office. Examples include Bolivia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and Hungary.
Not explicitly required, but helpful is a certificate of no impediment to marriage in the following countries: Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Norway, Seychelles.
A certificate of marriageability costs 47 euros. In other countries, your passport and an international birth certificate are sufficient.
Have your foreign marriage certificates authenticated by the competent foreign authority and legalized by the German embassy as directly as possible, to prove that the certificate is genuine.
Since name choices provided under German law are often not available abroad, upon returning to the Federal Republic, go to the registry office with your marriage certificate and make a joint declaration of name.
You can also have a German civil status register created here for your marriage that was concluded abroad.
The marriage certificate proves the fact of the marriage.
A current marriage certificate/extract from the marriage register shows whether the marriage is still valid and what surnames the spouses bear.
Our civil registrars will provide you with advice and support as you embark on your marriage.
The wedding hall in the town hall
Our wedding room in the Gründau town hall typically accommodates 34 people, including the bride and groom and witnesses.
Marriages take place with us Monday through Friday in the morning or on Thursdays at 3:00 PM.
At the couple's request, wedding ceremonies can also be performed on Fridays from 12:00 p.m. and on Saturdays, provided a registrar is available. A booking for the wedding ceremony can generally also be made before the six-month registration period for marriage. Please call us to discuss your desired appointment. The registry office sets the time of the wedding ceremony. Wishes will be gladly considered if possible.
Following the wedding ceremony, a small champagne reception can take place. Weather permitting, our terrace offers a wonderful ambiance to conclude your ceremony with champagne and photos at the registry office. In case of bad weather, the champagne reception can be held in the foyer. Standing tables and champagne glasses will be provided. You would need to bring the champagne.
Or would you prefer to say „I do“ outside the town hall, in the Hall of Encounters in Mittel-Gründau, at Stahlwerk.events in Lieblos, at Gut Hühnerhof in the Gettenbach district, or at the restaurant "Heckers," Am Golfplatz 1 in the Mittel-Gründau area?
If you have not chosen a joint married name at the time of your marriage, you can choose a married name during the marriage.
You can only decide on the married name together. All name declarations must be made before the registrar.
For questions regarding the new name law, please feel free to contact us by email at standesamt@gruendau.de.
