Flash marriage does not appear to be a solution for the waiting list, but it will be definitively introduced in Utrecht

Since 2020, Utrecht residents can choose to marry each other within five minutes at a counter in the City Office. The hope was that this flash wedding would help shorten the waiting list for the simple wedding, but that turned out not to be the case. Nevertheless, it has been decided to definitively introduce this super-fast form of wedding ceremony in Utrecht.

The idea for the flash wedding came four years ago from the local faction of the VVD. Utrecht residents who wanted to marry each other, but without too much fuss, could choose to do this free of charge on the sixth floor of the City Office. In this form of ‘simple marriage’, the couple gives each other the vows and signs the papers in a room with room for a few guests. This ceremony takes about ten minutes.

Faster

With the flash wedding, which costs 258.60 euros, everything goes even faster. This method of wedding ceremony does not differ much from ‘simple marriage’, but it does take place at the counter instead of in a closed room. “It was assumed that some of the couples who opt for free marriage opt for this type of marriage, which shortens the waiting time for free marriage,” the council writes.

However, the trial has shown that the waiting list for the free wedding has not become shorter. At the start of the pilot it was nine months and that is still the case now. The waiting list for the flash wedding is approximately three months.

Right to exist

Nevertheless, the flash marriage, as the council describes it, ‘has a right to exist’. “There is a specific target group that prefers the business, administrative flash wedding to the more ceremonial, simple wedding because it better suits their desire to arrange matters properly and quickly.”

The people who opted for the simple wedding on the sixth floor of the Municipal Office during the trial period did so mainly for financial reasons. The wedding ceremony is free, while the flash wedding costs almost 260 euros.

Popularity

During the evaluation it turned out that 34 percent of the couples opted for the flash wedding. Finally, the council writes that more traditional and ceremonial weddings are losing popularity and that couples are increasingly choosing to separate the civil part of the wedding from the festive part.

“Because of the above conclusions, we are structurally introducing the flash wedding, whereby the appointment options for the flash wedding are tailored to demand.”