Well, that’s exactly what transpired at on unfortunate wedding ceremony this month in Klatovy, south of Plzeň.
The mayor of Klatovy, Rudolf Salvetr, happened to be at the wedding as a registrar.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to me,” he told Novinky.cz.
“Sometimes one of the betrothed will say ‘no’ for kicks or as a joke. But that was not the case here, so the marriage is obviously invalid.”
The identity of the young couple was not revealed. The mayor described the wedding as ‘restrained’ and the participants ‘polite’.
“Of course I was surprised. It’s extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved,” Salvetr continued. “They make preperations, hold almost the entire ceremony, and then this happens.”
Is the answer legally binding? There are clear rules in Czech law that govern the unusual response.
“When one of the betrothed says ‘no,’ they must be asked again,” Jitka Kunstová, who has over thirty years of experience at the Plzeň register, told Novinky.
“Only if the answer is negative again, must the marriage be declared unfinalized.”