Weddingbee Blog

After I found time to travel to Bern and endure the tyranny of the US Embassy to prove I was unmarried, my birth certificate finally came in the post and we were promptly on our way to the registrar to fill out our marriage application.

(Drawing by toothpaste for dinner)

Mr. Funnel Cake and I sat nervously in the registry office, holding sweaty hands as the clerk helped us fill out our application. There are many “marriages of convenience” in Switzerland with the sole purpose of supplying a residence or work permit, so immigration is always on the lookout for suspicious “couples” that are really strangers marrying for money or permits. We were so nervous that they would think we weren’t really in love reject our application. It was terrifying!

As part of proving you really know your partner, you are supposed to fill out your applications by yourself, which includes writing your fiance’s birthdate. I had a bit of a brain fart because I always think Mr. Funnel Cake’s birthday is November 6, the same day I moved to Switzerland, when it’s really November 8th.

I was trying so hard to remember the correct day that I messed up the European date format, which is day first and then month, so I accidentally wrote 11.6, meaning his birthday was June 11th. It was completely wrong! Horrified that they wouldn’t let me marry him because I couldn’t remember his birthday, I crossed it out and wrote the correct day. They didn’t notice. Whew.

The clerk reviewed our application and asked us some basic questions (in German). Everything seemed to be OK, but, wait a minute. My birth certificate had a problem with it…it did not have my birth city on it, it just said “Ohio.” Funny, because my original birth certificate DOES say Columbus on it, so if they just accepted the original it never would have been a problem.

I told them I was from Columbus, but that wasn’t enough, so they tried checking my passport for the city. Would you believe, Ohioan passports don’t have cities on them either? It just says OHIO. Great.

At this point, the clerk had her supervisor come over and she started asking him what to do because she couldn’t input anything for my “Heimatort” despite my continued efforts telling her I was from Columbus.

“Is ’Ohio City’ a city in Ohio?” they asked me repeatedly. Uh, maybe. But I’m not from Ohio City, I’m from COLUMBUS. What’s wrong with these people?? They started searching on Google Maps for “Ohio City” while Mr. Funnel Cake and I were getting super nervous that this was an issue. (My hands are getting sweaty again just writing this!)

Turns out there IS an Ohio City, Ohio. Wonderful.

(Image via city data)

Finally they looked back at my affidavit I’d filled out at the Embassy. I had filled it out in pen and there scribbled on the form in my handwriting was “Columbus, Ohio” as my birthplace. So there. Take that. Because it was notarised, they accepted my writing as fact.

After that confusion was out of the way, they let us know when our three-month window of opportunity was valid and we could already pick a date. If we wanted our ceremony in English as well as German, we could choose from a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at the time.

My parents had let me know my dad was scheduled for some holiday in August so we picked a date when they were available to fly here. Mr. Funnel Cake insisted we choose the 17th, which I’ll explain later on. We left the registry office and breathed a BIG sigh of relief. With the application approved and the date set, my parents booked flights immediately and told the kids they were going to visit us!

Share what your experience with the wedding paperwork was like!

How to get married in Switzerland: Part I