Friend as Officiant

[Jacilynda]

So I was going to attach the ceremony outline I think we might use then we may add in some fun different vows, but it won't attach so if you pm me your email I can email it to you Look at Wedding Vows they have tons of vows, nontraditional, traditional, romantic, later in life, cultural, etc. When you use a friend or family member for your officiant you can do whatever you like!

[tcuvicki]

Hey guys! I am doing the same thing. We are having a friend marry us and doing all the legal paperwork here. My mom seems to think that if anyone finds out they will be mad for attending a "fake wedding" as she calls it. We are trying to keep it secret, but she is so worried that someone might find out. Any advice?

[Mishka Designs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcuvicki Hey guys! I am doing the same thing. We are having a friend marry us and doing all the legal paperwork here. My mom seems to think that if anyone finds out they will be mad for attending a "fake wedding" as she calls it. We are trying to keep it secret, but she is so worried that someone might find out. Any advice?

Yes, my advice is don't tell your parents!! All kidding aside, listen, I've said it once and I imagine I will say it oodles more times with new brides - the only way to be legally married here is with a judge and the judges aren't all that romantic - here is it 150% common for someone to get civilly married with no one there but their spouse and, then, to have a big ole church wedding some time when they can afford it.

I completely understand, however, wanting everything to be on the same day - I wanted that too. But, we had a small, intimate civil ceremony in the States and then we had a big ole shebang a year to the day later in Mexico City - and nobody batted an eyelid or thought one was any less important than the other :).

What is a wedding anyway? It's two people publically announcing that they are choosing to be together. All the rest of the stuff (all the legal paperwork blah blah blah) came later.

[Steffeny11]

We are actually doing the legal stuff when we get back home to "finalize it". That way people know/feel like they are going to the real thing and we keep the feeling of it being the real thing, too. Does anyone know of anything I should be aware of about doing it afterwards? It seems to be more popular to do it before and I want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

[Destination Scout]

We built our own ceremony using this website as a guideline. It has lots of options and variations and gives some great ideas on how to create a dramatic ceremony.

Chicago Wedding Officiants Wedding Offic

[J&MWedding]

oh, good website Malisa!

Here is what we are doing (similar to others...and I posted this somewhere else I think)

Luckily, my future brother in law is already ordained for some reason. He said he can marry us legally whenever, wherever as along as we have one witness. then we sign the paperwork in front of him and file. Our very good friend will be our officiant in mexico and witness in the US.

So, literally, we leave on our flight on Sunday, and at the airport, I'm going to have my Brother in law perform the ceremony before we get on the flight and then take off. meet everyone in Mexico! Our witness/officiant will be there and then perform the symbolic ceremony in mexico. I love the idea and we won't really have to lie/hide anything beforehand. People will arrive a few days before the wedding in mexico, but I figure we will be having so much fun no one will ask us anything or pay attention!

[kate.com]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffeny11 We are actually doing the legal stuff when we get back home to "finalize it". That way people know/feel like they are going to the real thing and we keep the feeling of it being the real thing, too. Does anyone know of anything I should be aware of about doing it afterwards? It seems to be more popular to do it before and I want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

Hey, I don't think it is a big deal. I think it is all a mental thing. We did it before, and our wedding in PV felt like the real thing once we were there.

I may have posted this before, but at the court house we dressed casual, did not exchange rings... we did exchange vows. It was a Tuesday during the lunch hour, we brought 2 friends and went to a nice lunch to celebrate. It felt real for the first day or so... but there was no dress, celebration, etc so when Mexico came around it was our real wedding date! Either way you go, I suggest downplaying your legal ceremony. That way your anniv, etc is truely your DW day.
PS people will ask silly questions like "so what is your anniv? Or what day willl you celebrate" and I am kind of like ? really?

[Cassondra2009]

In Massachusetts, anyone can become a JP for a day for only $25. So we are going to have a friend become a JP to take care of our legal marriage in the States. I'm not sure of the detials or anything, but I'm hoping that we will not be required to say ANYTHING to each other. I just want to sign the papers and pretend that we arent married until we get to our REAL wedding.

[Jeremy Herman PhotoVideo]

Hello Miss Di!

My wife and I got married in Tulum last year and 3 of our best friends performed the ceremony for us.We didn't make anything official thought (our official wedding was in Paris), but it was great, they wrote very personnal texts , it was magic and very fun for us!

Good luck with your planning!

[marisolhernandez]

Hi,

 

Here is a rough draft of our ceremony. Hope this helps.... We pulled this together using a few different ceremonies that we found online.

 

 

Wedding ceremony final.doc