Since the registration of marriages can be held outside the registry office or church premises, away ceremonies have gained great popularity in Latvia. Today, couples choose not only more exotic places, but are also bolder in choosing the time of the ceremony. Someone dreams of the birth of a new family with the first rays of the sun, someone chooses midnight as their time, and someone - New Year's Eve. It sounds fabulous, but how realistic is it to organize such a thing, and in such a way that it is also legally valid?

Legal side

More and more often, couples want to break tradition and make their wedding an unforgettable experience in a completely unconventional way. The marriage ceremony is, of course, one of the most important events of the wedding day, and many choose to make it special by registering their union at an unconventional time - be it sunrise, sunset, midnight or some other special hour for the couple.

It must be said, however, that in most such cases, the couple will have to visit the registry office one way or another before or after the solemn ceremony in order to legally register the marriage and receive a certificate.

Inese Bumbiere-Kaže, the head of the Northern Civil Registry Department of the city of Riga, reveals that if a marriage is registered outside the civil registry department, a marriage certificate will not be issued immediately.

It can be received on the next working day, when all the information has been entered in the unified civil status register.

"Speaking of non-traditional times of marriage, it must be said that marriage registration outside the premises of the registry office must also take place during working hours. Usually, the couple agrees on all these issues with the responsible employee of the registry office when submitting an application, as this issue must be coordinated with the capabilities and workload of the relevant department." However, as the experience of more than one couple shows, persons who have the right to marry two people are completely responsive and it is possible to agree on everything.

Of course, the registry office is not the only option. Those who want to be married by a priest should discuss all the nuances with a representative of the particular church. If the pastor has not only the right to marry, but also to register the marriage - draw up a marriage certificate and issue a marriage certificate, then the couple does not have to take any additional actions, the pastor must submit marriage registration documents to the registry office within two weeks.

Alternate Master of Ceremonies

When you want to go outside the box, you may have to face various complications. What if the relevant officials do not sign off on your adventure?

Marriage initiations and an impromptu ceremony are just some of the options to do in such a case. Wedding agency BANNTÉ festival organizer Inga Bērziņa shares her experience:

"For off-site ceremonies, only the protocol is signed on the spot, so in any case a legal wedding means correspondence at the registry office. I very often have cases where the couple is legally married before the wedding day.

Officials of the Civil Registry Department also conduct outing ceremonies during working hours, except for certain cases when there is a very accommodating employee. But in other cases, such ceremonies, even in non-traditional times, are often led by pastors who consecrated an already legally concluded marriage." It must be admitted that, from a legal point of view, it is quite difficult to legally conclude a marriage at five in the morning without an additional visit to the registry office, but you should definitely not throw the plinth in the bushes and forget your dream of a non-traditional wedding.

Agnes Straupe, owner of LA CREATION agency, has an excellent example from her life of how to solve a situation when there is no possibility to arrange a real master of ceremonies at the selected time. "We have had weddings where the young couple registers their marriage at the registry office on the morning of the wedding, but later the ceremony itself is conducted by the bride's brother." It is a perfectly sincere solution, but

if you want someone neutral to officiate, don't be afraid to ask your wedding night host or an improvisational theater actor for example.

"In such cases, the young couple should be open to different solutions, because many believe that the moment when they sign the papers is the most important, but in our opinion, it is not. If the young couple is open, then with the help of improvisers, the ceremony can be turned into a free, fabulously beautiful and joy-filled show in which the young couples play along," advises Agnese.

Another solution is Valters Korālis, the only private practice teacher in Latvia, who offers complete freedom of choice, in terms of place and time.

"I go whenever and wherever the couple wants, as long as I'm free at that time. For example, in the marriage liturgy, the ideal time for marriage in a hot air balloon is the hour of sunrise. However, more often couples choose sunset. There have also been weddings late at night and even at midnight in the palace. I send the legal formalities to a consulate abroad or a registry office to arrange them. My married couples usually come to Latvia at the registry office on a weekday and just sign the registration papers there. After that, we all diligently prepare for the big wedding event," says the pastor.

Read more about balloon weddings here.

They realized their dream of an unconventional wedding time

Lauris and Asnate closed their union on the magical 8.08.

In Roja on the pier, at sunrise, at 5.37. "This decision was probably the easiest that we have both made, because both this place and being by the sea have been special to both of us since childhood.

That's how we and nature connected our bonds for life at sunrise, in the middle of the sea, standing on a rocky pier, enjoying complete peace, silence and only the closest people around us."

Although, upon receiving the invitation, almost every one of the invitees made a comment or smiled slyly about the time of the ceremony, Lauris and Asnate did not receive any serious objection, and everyone was present on the big day. In addition, after the wedding, the guests expressed their excitement that the early rise was worth it.

The young family was married by a master of ceremonies known to the couple, who immediately agreed to this adventure. "After the ceremony, with the guides and the photographer, we went through the city to the registry office in Roja, where we were officially married in a small ceremony. After that, we walked happily back to the guests, who, as it turned out, had a lot of fun even without us. And that only made us happy!"

Lauris and Monta consider January 1 as their anniversary date.

However, the proposal was made on New Year's Eve, so naturally, exactly a year later on December 31, the couple exchanged rings and, with the new year, created a new family. It is interesting that both grandparents also got married on New Year's Eve. Since it was important for the couple that both the ceremony and the celebration took place in the same place, the Strazdumuiža boarding high school was chosen as the venue, which, with the help of decorations, had been transformed into an unrecognizably romantic place for that moment.

Although it seems almost impossible to get a leader of the ceremony on such a significant date, the couple was lucky with an employee of the Riga Northern Civil Registry Department, who was very responsive and accommodating.

Due to legislation, marriage cannot be officially registered on December 31, it can only be done by a pastor in the church. That's why the couple registered their marriage at the registry office a few days earlier. "If you want to get married on New Year's Eve, you have to take into account that you are competing with all the New Year's celebrations, so you have to book everything in time and the costs will probably be higher. We have great relatives, friends and acquaintances who got involved in everything, so we didn't feel it. No guest refused to come just because we were getting married on New Year's Eve, for many it eased the problems of where to welcome the New Year, and the reviews afterwards were only positive," says Monta.

Oskars and Ilga dreamed of their wedding at sunrise, and their dream came true.

"Initially, we had planned the wedding in the summer, with relatives and friends present, but it turned out that in Latvia you cannot give a child the surnames of both parents (unless one of the parents already has a double surname), which we really wanted.

Since I was already expecting, Oskars proposed to correspond secretly. Soon after we corresponded, I dreamed of a wedding at sunrise, and Oskar also thought this idea was very typical of us. Then, a couple of months after we corresponded, we put together a surprise for friends and relatives. "Hey, we're married!" with “ But , you haven't missed anything” invitation to marriage initiation at sunrise, August 7, 2014 at 5.30," says Ilga.

The ceremony took place at the beach cafe of the couple's friends in Dzintaros, right on the seashore, but, even at such an early hour of the morning, some distractions had to be expected. "The tractor driver, who was leveling the seashore, very insistently wanted to do the work as carefully as possible, exactly at the place and time when we listened to the pastor's speech and said yes.

Anyway, an indescribably big thank you must be given to the pastor of the Torņakalnas Church, Kaspars Simanović, who agreed to such an adventure, allowing us to fulfill our craziest ideas," reveals Oskars.

The couple admits that organizing such an event is not easy, because they did everything themselves and with the help of friends, but the satisfaction is profound. "I would say - you have to dream and fulfill your dreams. It was our morning, our day, and we enjoyed it to the last detail," said Ilga.

The couple left the wedding celebration for the next day, so soon after the ceremony and the morning coffee, the guests went their separate ways, but the feedback about the chosen time was only positive. "It was a unique experience for everyone," assured Oskars.

PHOTO: AINĀARS MAZJĪNIS , AGNETA JONELE, CUISHILE , EDUARD PILDAVS PHOTOGRAPHY, KLAIDS LIELBIKSIS , UGIS NAGLĆĆŠ, VADIM BAZALY