BC / Vancouver / Canadian brides - help!

We are getting married in Mexico and figured that it would be much easier to get married at home here in Vancouver and have a symbolic ceremony in Mexico. Less paperwork, no blood test, no hassle. I *assumed* that like anywhere else we could just go down to City Hall one day and get married. Quick, simple, get it over with. Well, it looks like I was wrong.

 

Unlike anywhere else I have been to or heard of (I'm not from Vancouver, neither is FI) you can't get married at City Hall. I can get a marriage license, but I can't get married. From what I understand, I have to book a marriage commissioner separately to get married. This means that I would have to 1) find a location 2) shop around for a commissioner, etc. I just want something easy! I'm sooooo frustrated!

 

So, here's where I'm looking for help. I know that many of us on here do the legal wedding prior the destination one - has any BC bride been able to get married at City Hall? Are there any options out there for me so that I don't end up planning two weddings? HELP!!!

Hey there!

We got married here legally first...and yes, I too was surprised you couldn't just go down to City Hall:-)
It's really not TOO much extra work, so don't worry:-)

I am happy to pass on the contact info for the commissioner we used, I'm just in a HUGE rush right now, but will locate that info and send/post!
The woman we used was GREAT...she lives in Kits point and will even let you use her house for the ceremony, or her garden:-) Or, you can go across the street and get married at Kits Beach, it's literally across the street:-)
This is what we did:-)
Then we walked up to 4th avenue and had dinner at Pinky's Steakhouse with our witnesses - you need two - to celebrate:-)

Meanwhile if you want to search other commissioners, or maybe just don't live anywhere near Kits Point, here's the BC gov. website you need to go to:

BC Vital Statistics Agency - Marriage Registration & Certificates

On the left-hand side you can click on links to lists of commissioners and places that issue marriage licences...Believe it or not, London Drugs issues them and that's where we got ours:-)

Again, will post our commissioner's contact info later today/tonight!:-)

Good luck -- and any questions, just ask!

Thank you, yes, I would love to know who you used! I know that I can keep it easy but I wanted easier - i.e., just show up! It's just weird that they don't have that option available.

I always had this thing in the back of my head where a city hall wedding was a valid backup plan (anytime I'm frustrated) and now I can't even have that! Haha. FI suggested that we ask the commissioner to come to city hall to marry us? Could be funny!

True, true...we also were hoping it would just be a one-phone call kind of deal:-)
So, yes, there IS a little effort involved, which I know sucks when you're already super busy with everything else:-)

So, the name of the commissioner we used is Ann Moore...
She's REALLY sweet and REALLY loves doing weddings...so it's not just like she's rambling off the words...
BTW, there are about two lines in a legal ceremony that you HAVE to repeat (for it to be legally valid) that are SOOO not romanctic, lol:-)) They sound like they're taken directly from the criminal code or something:-)
But aside from that, the script Ann used was lovely...
You can of course, customize it to whatever you want, but we didn't bother b/c we liked hers:-)

Any commissioner costs $100 (or maybe some charge $75?)...anyway, it's that cost plus it's etiquette to tip the commissioner...

For Ann, we paid her $100, plus a tip...
If you want, she lets you stay for a bit at her house and if you bring champagne or whatever, she provides nice glasses for you to have toast and a drink after the ceremony... That's what we did:-)
(BTW, I'm sure she travels too, so you don't HAVE to have it near her place...though most commissioners will charge a travel fee as well...)

Okay, so here is her contact info:
Ann Moore
E-mail: [email protected] (hopefully it hasn't changed from last year?!)
Phone number: 604-731-1116

I'm also attaching the ceremony script she sent us:-)

Hope this helps -- and again, any questions, just ask!:-)

 

 

Legal MARRIAGE CEREMONY script.doc

Her script is lovely! I will be contacting her to see if / when she is available - if we still choose on doing the legal part here. Thank you for all of the info, it is very helpful!

Uh this is annoying!!!!

I didn't know that either, that you couldn't just go and get married at City Hall! That was one of those things on my list of things to look into at some point...

 

FI and I are still a bit undecided about whether to get married legally here or in Mexico. On the one hand, totally seems to make sense to just get married here. On the other hand FI hates (like with a capital H!) the idea of having two ceremonies. The only way I could even half way convince him was to describe the wedding here as being just signing paperwork, like agreeing to a business deal or something...

 

"Do you take her?"

"I do"

"Do you take him?"

"I do"

And great we're done!

 

We don't want to have parents or anybody there - would prefer to just have two strangers as witnesses!

 

So, this new info gives me some more to think about... sigh.

We also had our "legal signing" (I don't even want to call it wedding lol) here in BC, and we actually had it at home. We invited 2 close relatives that could not make it to Mexico for dinner and they were very surprised when they found out what was really happening that night Our Marriage Commissioner breezed through her part, we said I do, exchanged rings, and did the signatures. It was very informal and didn't take very long at all.

We too did our legal ceremony at home....a few hours north of Vancouver. =) If you want to do it in Whistler, the Commissionar we used was fantastic! She let us come to her home (with a gorgeous view of the mountains) and kept it VERY simple. Same cost as the ones in Vancouver as listed in a previous post.....just an option. Oh, and you get the formal marriage certificate so much quicker than doing it out of country.

Thank you everyone! We will definitively be looking at doing it legal in Vancouver, possibly at home. Could be fun!

Hey Magalie,

Obviously I am not from BC and no help but just saw that it was you. Hope you are getting it straightened out!!!