Getting Married in Malta: The Complete Guide

Every year, thousands of couples marry in Malta without living there, drawn by the light, the limestone, the sea, and the fact that the whole thing is far more straightforward than getting married abroad usually is.

This guide covers the full journey, from the first decision to the day itself: how the legal process works, what it costs, when to come, and the order in which to do things. It is written for couples planning from another country, which is how most Malta weddings happen.

Why couples choose Malta

The language – Maltese and English are both official languages. Your venue contract, your supplier emails and your legal paperwork will all be in English, a significant advantage over most Mediterranean destinations, and one that removes an entire category of risk.

The EU membership – Malta is in the European Union, the eurozone and the Schengen Area. For EU couples that means no visa, no currency conversion, and, importantly, no apostille required on public documents issued in another EU country. A French couple’s birth certificates are accepted without the legalisation step that a British or American couple must complete.

The scale – The whole archipelago is about 316 km². Guests fly in, and everything from the airport to the ceremony to the hotel sits within a short drive. Group logistics that are genuinely difficult in Tuscany or the Greek islands are simple here.

The season – Long, dry summers and a reliable window from April to October. An outdoor ceremony in June is a safe bet in a way it is not in northern Europe.

The setting – Baroque palazzos, a UNESCO-listed capital, a medieval walled city, honey-coloured limestone and the Mediterranean on every side. Malta does not need decorating.

The legal process in brief

Malta recognises civil and religious marriages, and the civil route is what most international couples use. The essentials:

• Contact the Marriage Registry at least three months before your intended date.
• Original documents must be submitted between three months and six weeks before the wedding. The six-week minimum period starts when your correct original documents are physically submitted and accepted, not when you email them.
• Two witnesses aged 18 or over are required.
• The official ceremony fee is €76.95 at the Marriage Registry, or €102.60 at another location.
• Documents not in English or Maltese must be translated.
• The Public Registry retains all original documents permanently.

The exact document list depends on your nationalities, countries of birth and countries of residence, the Marriage Registry states this explicitly and will not issue a universal list. The full requirements, forms and document checklists are set out in our detailed guide to civil weddings in Malta.

Getting married in Malta does not require residency, and there is no minimum stay before the ceremony.

A planning timeline

12 to 18 months before – Set your guest count and your budget, in that order, because one determines the other. Choose your season. Start looking at venues, particularly if you want a Saturday between May and October.

10 to 12 months before – Book the venue. Book your photographer, and your caterer if the venue does not provide one. These three book up first.

8 to 10 months before – Confirm accommodation blocks for guests. Malta’s better hotels fill in summer, and guests appreciate having options held for them.

6 months before – Send invitations — earlier than you would for a wedding at home, because guests are booking flights and taking leave. Begin gathering legal documents, especially anything that must be requested from a foreign authority.

3 months before – Contact the Marriage Registry and begin the banns process. Note that several key documents are valid for only three months from issue and must still be valid on your wedding day, so requesting them too early causes as many problems as requesting them too late.

6 weeks before – The absolute deadline for submitting original documents. Confirm final guest numbers with your caterer.

2 weeks before – Final schedule to all suppliers. Confirm transport.

1 to 2 days before – A final appointment with the Registrar, with original passports.

What it costs

Wedding costs in Malta vary enormously with guest count, season, venue type and how much you outsource. Rather than quote a figure that will be wrong for most readers, it is more useful to know what moves the number:

• Guest count – which drives catering, and catering is usually the largest single line.
• Season and day – A Saturday in August and a Thursday in April are different markets.
• Exclusivity – Having a private property to yourself costs more than sharing a hotel.
• Catering model – In-house is simpler; external gives freedom and adds coordination cost.
• Guest travel and accommodation – which is your guests’ budget rather than yours, but shapes how many of them come.

The one figure that is fixed and public is the official ceremony fee: €76.95 or €102.60 depending on location. Everything else needs quoting against your actual plans. Our article on what a wedding in Malta costs breaks down each element in detail.

Choosing when to come

April, May, early June – comfortable temperatures, green landscape, excellent light, good availability. Arguably the best window.

Late June to August – hot, regularly above 30°C, and the busiest period for both weddings and tourism. Beautiful, but plan around the heat: later ceremony times, shade, water, and think carefully before putting guests in full sun at two in the afternoon.

September and October – warm sea, softer light, fewer crowds. Late September is a favourite among planners for good reason.

November to March – mild by northern European standards but unpredictable, with most of the year’s rain. Viable for small indoor celebrations and considerably cheaper, but not for an outdoor ceremony you cannot move.

Choosing where

Malta offers historic palazzos, private villas, traditional farmhouses, seafront terraces, hotels, heritage gardens, and the quieter alternative of Gozo. Each suits a different guest count, budget and atmosphere.

Rather than repeat it here, the full breakdown, including the questions that actually narrow a shortlist, and what to ask about wind, wet-weather plans and music curfews, is in our guide to choosing a wedding venue in Malta.

The formats couples choose

Not every wedding in Malta is a hundred-guest celebration. Three formats come up repeatedly:

The full destination wedding – 60 to 150 guests, usually across a long weekend, often with a welcome dinner and a recovery brunch. Guests treat it as a holiday.

The small or intimate wedding – 10 to 40 guests. A growing choice, and one Malta suits particularly well, see our guide to small and intimate weddings in Malta.

The elopement – Just the two of you and two witnesses. Legally identical, entirely different in feel. Covered in our guide to planning a Malta elopement.

Planning from abroad: what actually goes wrong

Having planned weddings for couples who arrive four days before the ceremony, a few failure patterns repeat.

Documents requested at the wrong time – Several required documents are valid for only three months. Ordered too early, they expire; too late, they miss the six-week deadline. The window is narrower than it looks.

Assuming email submission is enough – The six-week clock starts on physical submission and acceptance of originals. This surprises people every year.

Booking a venue from photographs – Websites show perfect conditions. They do not show the wind on the terrace, the building site next door, or where the sun actually sets in your month.

Underestimating guest logistics – Sixty guests arriving on eleven different flights need coordinating. It is not difficult, but it does not happen by itself.

No wet-weather plan for a shoulder-season date – April and October are lovely and occasionally wet. A plan you have seen beats a marquee you have been promised.

Do you need a wedding planner?

Not necessarily, plenty of couples organise a Malta wedding themselves, particularly a small one, and do it well.

The calculation changes with distance and scale. If you are coordinating eight suppliers from another country, in a market whose pricing and reputations you cannot easily assess, the cost of a planner is often less than the cost of the mistakes. Our article on whether you need a wedding planner in Malta sets out what the role covers and what to ask before choosing one.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to live in Malta to get married there?

No. There is no residency requirement and no minimum stay before the ceremony.

When is the best time of year?

May, June, late September and October offer the best balance of weather, light and availability. July and August are hot and busy; November to March is mild but unpredictable.

Can we have a religious ceremony?

Yes. Catholic and other religious ceremonies are recognised, with different official fees and additional requirements set by the relevant religious authority.

How much does a wedding in Malta cost?

It depends almost entirely on guest count, season and how much is brought in. The only fixed figure is the official ceremony fee. Our article on what a wedding in Malta costs sets out each variable in turn.

How far in advance should we invite guests?

Earlier than for a wedding at home, six months is a sensible minimum, and eight is better. Guests are booking flights, arranging accommodation and taking leave, and the earlier they know, the higher your acceptance rate.

How difficult is it to plan from abroad?

Manageable, and thousands of couples do it every year. The two things that make the difference are starting the legal paperwork on time and having someone who can physically see the venue and the suppliers. Everything else can be done remotely.

What about the documents, witnesses and deadlines?

These have their own requirements and firm cut-off dates. Rather than summarise them imperfectly here, they are set out in full, with official sources, in our guide to civil weddings in Malta.

Where to start

If you take one thing from this guide, make it the sequence: guest count, then budget, then season, then venue, then legal paperwork. Couples who choose a venue first and work backwards almost always end up compromising something they cared about more.

Signature Events plans bespoke destination weddings in Malta on an à-la-carte basis rather than through fixed packages, which means the plan is built around your day, not around a price list. If you are at the beginning of this and would like to talk it through, we would be glad to hear from you.