Getting married in Sønderborg: Fridays in Gråsten or Nordborg

Getting married in Sønderborg is possible for couples from abroad only on Fridays between 8:30 and 14:00, in Gråsten or Nordborg. On the Thursday before, you register in person. As of September 2026, the next free date is not until 8 January 2027.

Getting married in Sønderborg: the rules for couples from abroad

On its German, English and Danish pages, Sønderborg Municipality lists these rules for foreign couples:

So the ceremony does not take place at Sønderborg town hall, but in Gråsten or in Nordborg on the island of Als. According to its own page, the municipality always provides two witnesses for these Friday ceremonies, so you do not need to bring anyone.

The mandatory registration on Thursday

All foreign couples must register in person on the day before the wedding: on Thursday between 9:00 and 17:00 at Borgerservice, Holger Drachmanns Plads 5, 2nd floor, 6400 Sønderborg. A wedding in Sønderborg therefore takes at least two days with one overnight stay. Arriving in the morning and marrying the same day is not possible here.

The page does not say what to bring to the registration. To be safe, bring the passports you also gave in your application to Familieretshuset, and ask the marriage office whether anything else is needed. Plan your Thursday journey with enough buffer so that you are at Borgerservice well before 17:00.

Next date in January 2027: the 4-month trap

Familieretshuset's approval, the prøvelsesattest, is valid for 4 months from the date of issue. Your wedding date must fall inside that window.

As of September 2026, the next free Friday in Sønderborg is about 15 weeks away, on 8 January 2027. An approval issued in early October is valid until early February. That fits, but with little room to spare. If your preferred Friday lies further in the future, an approval applied for too early can expire before you marry. How long other municipalities currently take is shown in our waiting-times comparison.

How to plan your application backwards from the date

In Sønderborg, the Friday sets the whole schedule. So go about it in this order:

1. Clarify the Friday with the marriage office

   The municipality's page does not say how, or how far ahead, Sønderborg allocates its Fridays. So before you apply, ask which Friday is possible for you and how you book it.

   First

2. Count backwards

   Your date minus 4 months gives the earliest sensible issue date for the approval. Example: for Friday, 12 March 2027, it should not be issued before mid-November 2026.

   Date minus 4 months

3. Name Sønderborg in the application

   The approval applies to the municipality you name in the application. Changing it later means a request to Familieretshuset, which therefore recommends checking where there are free dates before you apply.

4. Submit a complete application

   Familieretshuset usually decides complete applications within 5 working days. If it asks for more documents, it takes longer: at the end of September 2026 it was working on cases from July. If both parts of the application are not received within 14 days, the case is closed and you have to apply and pay again.

   5 working days

5. Plan Thursday and the overnight stay

   As soon as the date is fixed, book accommodation for the night from Thursday to Friday and plan in the registration at Borgerservice.

   Once confirmed

Our documents guide 2026 gives an overview of all documents, and typical stumbling blocks in the application are covered in our guide 9 typical mistakes. In the Complete package we file the application for you and coordinate it with your Friday in Sønderborg.

When Sønderborg is worth it, and when Tønder or Aabenraa suit you better

Sønderborg requires more planning from couples from abroad than Tønder or Aabenraa: one wedding day a week, registration the day before and, as of September 2026, a good three months of lead time. It can still be the right choice.

Sønderborg suits you if

• you want to marry on a Friday from January 2027 onwards,
• you would like to stay a night in Denmark anyway,
• you like Gråsten or Nordborg as a venue,
• you do not want to bring your own witnesses, because the municipality provides them on Fridays.

Tønder or Aabenraa suit you better if

• you want to travel there and back in one day, because neither requires registration the day before,
• you want to be sure of a ceremony in German, because both officially list German as a ceremony language,
• you need more weekdays: Tønder marries on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Aabenraa Monday to Friday,
• you want to marry before January 2027. Note, though, that Tønder does not publish a waiting time, and Aabenraa releases dates only 60 days ahead.

Haderslev also marries couples from abroad only on Fridays and requires registration the day before, but officially lists German as a ceremony language. More in our guides to Aabenraa, Haderslev and the Tønder registry office. Our guide Marrying near the border compares all border towns side by side.

Sources and status

The rules in this article come from the official pages of the municipalities and Familieretshuset:

• Sønderborg Municipality: wedding page (German)
• Sønderborg Municipality: Wedding (English)
• Sønderborg Municipality: Vielse (Danish)
• Familieretshuset: application, fee and validity (Danish)
• Familieretshuset: processing times (Danish)
• Familieretshuset: note on changing the municipality (English, May 2025)
• Tønder Municipality: Marriage (English)
• Aabenraa Municipality: Marriage Registry Office (English)
• Haderslev Municipality: Marriage (English)

As of September 2026. Sønderborg shows its next free date on its own page, and it changes constantly. Check it before you apply.