LEGAL WEDDING OR SYMBOLIC WEDDING??

[leahs320]

We are doing a symbolic ceremony in cancun. I personally do not want blood work in a foreign country. Also, the marriage certificate would need translated for an extra $300!

[Samantha88k]

kimbos: If you find out the answer to your question about post-dating your certificate let us know! I have been wanting to do a symbolic ceremony as well just to avoid the extra cost, blood test, etc. but then I wasn't sure which date would be "our date"?

 

I also have a friend who had such tried to do a legal ceremony in Costa Rica but it got so complicated when she got home they had to get re-married by the justice of the peace in the U.S. Seems like maybe doing it at home first might just be the way to go.

[blondy]

 

 

Originally Posted by kimbos 

 

O another thing if you go with the symbolic ceremony and get married before you leave can they post date the papers to match the date of your ceremony? What would your wedding date be if not?

 

I would think that would depend on what jurisdiction you get legally married.  I would think that you couldn't "post-date" anything - your legal wedding date is your legal wedding date.  However, you could check with your local wedding lisencing agency.

 

To us, we are considering our "symbolic" ceremony to be our "real" date, regardless of what is our legal date.  You can celebrate whatever date you want.

[kimbos]

I know I was thinking that we would not be able to do that being that it is a legal document. I will likely just do the paperwork before I leave and like you consider my wedding date the actual date of my ceremony.

[mandys]

At first I was going to have a civil wedding at the resort, but it just seems too time consuming and costly. I think we will have a symbolic ceremony at the resort. No one has to know that it isint legal though. It will be our little secret.

[TropicLover]

Hey everyone!  I'm planning a wedding for Feb/Mar 2012 in Riviera Maya.  At first I was thinking of doing a legal ceremony, but after reading about the paperwork, translations, arriving a certain # of days prior to the ceremony I'm having second thoughts.

 

I'm now leaning towards a symbolic in Mexico and doing the legal ceremony just before we leave.  Has anyone else done that?  Did you tell your guests?  Also, did you make it a big whoop-la or just have a couple of witnesses and a nice dinner? 

 

I'm in Vancouver, BC so if there's anyone from here let me know if you have any recommendations for marriage commissioners.  Thanks so much!

[nikonman2004]

I've done them both and each has it's plus'. For a legal wedding you'll need to get there a few days in advance.

[diahr]

My FI and I were legally married last week (we are doing a symbolic ceremony in Mexico). The process was so easy. We simply filled out a marriage license with the office of vital stats.. I walked downstairs and put us on the judge's calendar.  Meanwhile, we had to wait 3 days for the marriage license to be official. After that, we went to court and got it done.. I am not really even acknowledging that "it" happened because I don't want to take away from our real wedding day when we say our vows to each other. I didn't tell a soul! We used my FI's distant friend (that is not coming to the weddding) and his friend's sister (that I have never even met before) as witnesses.  There was no exchange of rings or celebration either. This was just business. The best part, the whole thing only costs $28 (the cost for the marriage license). The municipal judge (in NJ) did it for free! The only thing that sucked was the privacy factor. The judge would have done it for us in his chambers before traffic court, but my FI missed his train. Soooo we had to do it in traffic court, but the judge waited until he cleared out 98% of the courtroom to take care of us. It's okay though, the people got a little surprise with their traffic fines! LOL!! We will most likely never see them again anyway so it didn't bother us at all. 

[justiner57]

We have also decided to do the marriage license here and just do a symbolic ceremony in Mexico. I am afraid that some of my guests (future in-laws) would be mad if they knew they were flying all the way to Mexico and it wasn't a "legal" ceremony. So we are not telling a sole either. I think we are going to do it the day before we leave for Mexico, like many of the other Brides. As far as the date is concerned, I'm struggling what to do. Since no one will know that we got married before our wedding celebration in Mexico, I don't want to celebrate a different date. But we haven't completely made that decision yet. I would rather that everyone be on the same page and us use our date of the symbolic ceremony in Mexico as our "date."

[AfricanVenus]

We're doing it separately also. I'm from NJ also Diahr, so it is cheap for $28 vs. $600 for doing it in Mexico! Luckily, I clerk for a judge, so they'll be performing the ceremony. It's coming up in April. My parents expect to come, so close family and friends will be there. I don't consider it the real wedding and it takes away nothing from my spiritual wedding in Mexico. It is just business: crossing t's and dotting i's. My mom keeps reminding me that certain legal documents would want to know my wedding date and the April date is what I'd have to put down. I don't really care. June 25th is the real date to me. I may still put it down as June 25th on paper and if they ask me any questions, I'll explain. Wish we could've kept it private, but some people who couldn't go to Mexico expressed a desire to attend this one, so why not.