What's with all these Hague Conventions?
When people start to investigate the possibility of getting married abroad, they often read about this and that 'Hague Convention', which seems to make the whole thing seem very complicated.
Don't let this stuff scare you off!
There are essentially two Hague conventions which matter here, but the important thing is to realise that both of them make it easier, not more difficult, for you to have a legal foreign wedding!
Wherever the Hague Convention is important in planning a marriage in a country, we will point that out in the pages related to that country. In most cases it is there in the background, making things easier for you but requiring no special actions on your part.
1. The Hague Convention on Celebration and Recognition of the Validity of Marriages (1978)
Essentially the purpose of this convention is to ensure that a marriage certificate legally issued in one country is legally valid in other countries.
That is pretty much all you need to know, but there is more detail here if you really want it!
2.The Hague Conventions Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (1961)
This convention is familiarly known as 'The Apostille Convention'.
This convention streamlines the movement of official documents between countries by ensuring that official documents (birth, marriage and death certificates etc) properly issued in one country are accepted in another country.
It also means that other documents, such as a Certificate of Non-Impediment, can be authenticated in one straightforward step, rather than several as would otherwise be the case.
That's it in a nutshell, but there is a detailed look here if you want to know more.
The Hague Convention & the USA
The USA is not a signatory to the Hague convention on Marriages. Theoretically this means that the USA is not obliged to recognise foreign marriages without adding additional legal or documentary requirements.
In practice however, The US government recognises all foreign marriages that are recognised by the country in which they took place, provided the parties to the marriage would also have been allowed to marry in the USA.