Gibraltar
We are celebrating our marriage in Procida on September 13th, 2021, with as many of you as we hope can make it.
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However, we have been legally married since April 8th, 2021, where, under the the Queen herself, we entered into holy bureaucratic freedom. Indeed, other than following in John & Yoko's footsteps, the main purpose of going forward with the legal part of the act prior to the actual wedding in Procida was so that Mathieu could join Jilda on her first trip back to New York in over 16 months. Because of covid restrictions that began in March 2020, Europeans without visas, residency claims, or who were not related to American citizens, could not enter the United States. At the time of writing (June 6th, 2021), this remains the case.
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The plan to move forward with some sort of legal ceremony so that we could go the US together began in December 2020. Having waited in vain to see whether the borders would open in time Christmas, we began to explore ways to overcome the European-exclusion. Namely, to render Mathieu the bonafide spouse of an American citizen (USA! USA! USA!).
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As two non-Germans living in Germany, to arrange a quick city hall ceremony is not so simple. In most countries, to get married as non-citizens of that country presents its own suite of difficulties. Namely, the requirement to procure documentation from one's respective embassy that affirms that one is not already married. Such documentation could take 4 - 12 weeks to receive - even without a global pandemic in force. For this reason, we looked into alternatives to places like France or Germany for quick ways to tie the knot in order to make our long-awaited joint return to New York a reality.
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As it so happens, the 'Las Vegas' of Europe is in fact two places: Denmark, and Gibraltar. Denmark, though closer, was not an option, as German residents were not allowed in due to covid. Gibraltar however.. was. Their only requirement to be wed in the British overseas territory is a one night stay, and the only documents required are original birth certificates and passports. We were late to the party - even the New York Times had recently published an article in September 2020 about how international couples were flocking to the rock outcropping at the entrance to the Mediterranean in order to ease the administrative burden of being together in a time of widespread border closures. Unable to secure a wedding ceremony booking prior Christmas, we set our sights on early January.
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Early January coincided, of course, with the official start of Brexit, and huge spikes in covid cases in both the UK mainland and Gibraltar. This meant the formerly fluid Spanish-Gibraltar border was now closed to non-residents of Spain or Gibraltar, and thus, it was impossible to move forward with the wedding (travel through London into Gibraltar, the alternative to entering through Spain, was also marred with covid-related roadblocks). And so we postponed the early January wedding date to late January. Then had to postpone again. And again. Finally in March, we decided to push our patience to 11, and postpone a whole 6 weeks, hoping the winter covid spikes and restrictions would have mitigated by early April (though there was certainly no guarantee at this point).
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Come March 31st, the border between Spain and Gibraltar once again opened to two-way traffic, including by non-residents, and thus, our path to wedded bliss was cleared.
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With Mathieu's mom Martine, we traveled to Gibraltar on April 6th, dropped off our paperwork with the Gibraltar registrar on April 7th, and had our wedding ceremony at 10:30 AM BST, April 8th. After a brief encounter with barbary macaques, we returned to Paris for a night, before departing across the Atlantic and making our long-awaited return to the shores of the big apple.
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To learn more, feel free to check out our very unprofessional series of wedding photos.
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While it's been very exciting to refer to one another as 'husband and wife' in some official contexts, we are saving the more habitual referral of one another as such until we officially pronounce it before all of you in Procida. Indeed, we will still be having a wedding ceremony in Procida, will be writing our own vows, and so on. The lack of an Italian local official in a tri-colored sash pronouncing our union in shades of Neapolitan will not detract from the pomp. And it was worth it to finally be back in Brooklyn after nearly a year and a half. Now we will have the opportunity to have two weddings, with two very different flavors. And indeed, while Gibraltar was extremely special, it was not the same without having a representative cohort from both our lives to celebrate with us, so we are very much looking forward to fulfilling this aspect of our dream wedding with you all.