The Hague pioneers with internet-only official wedding preparations

THE HAGUE - One third of all couples who married in The Hague last year, used the municipality’s new website to arrange the procedure prior to the official civic wedding ceremony. The internet site allowed them to ‘take out a license’ - in Dutch called in ondertrouw gaan - select a wedding date, the registrar and the wedding certificate. The necessary birth and residence certificates are digitally assembled through the website, set up last year. Most of the steps now taken electronically earlier had required multiple visits to municipal offices. The Hague is the first city in the Netherlands to offer these ‘electronic counter’ services.