Getting Legally Married Before, Or After The Trip?

[BusyBee280]

I'm now worried that if I get legally married before we leave for our trip, it may cause complications down the road with my last name changing, or my status of being legally married.

 

What is everyone else doing?

[acw271011]

We got married in Jamaica simply because it was so much easier than Mexico. Even though we were both divorced and much older, the paperwork we had to provide was pretty simple. Mexico was more complicated because we were divorced and I wasn't in to paying the high translation fees for everything to be put into Spanish. But just because you get married at home first, it doesn't do anything to your "married" status or cause complications that I've ever heard of. If someone has had trouble, maybe they could add in here.

 

You'll find a lot of people on this site doing the legal wedding at home before going to Mexico, and I would think, in my personal opinion, it would make sense unless you're prepared for the blood test and translating all of your documents. I've seen ladies here doing just that, so it's definitely a matter of personal choice. If you have a courthouse nearby, you could do the legal stuff a couple of days before you leave and that's it. In terms of the legalities of name changing and so on, you would need to understand that if you're married before you go to Mexico, what you receive there is only a symbolic marriage certificate. Not that any guests or anyone would notice the difference, but it isn't a legally binding marriage certificate so it wouldn't be the documentation you need for changing your name, etc. Your official "name change" date would be the date of your legal wedding, not your Mexico wedding. But if you don't tell friends and family, who's to know and who's to care? Let them think that your Mexico wedding is your "real" wedding. No harm no foul. I wanted our wedding date to be just that - our wedding date, so Jamaica worked for us instead of Mexico.

 

Good luck and happy planning!

[MrsRoy]

I have done some extensive research today and it looks like Jamaica is probably the easiest place to get married

[LissaSou]

We are having a legal wedding in Mexico

[acw271011]

We are having a legal wedding in Mexico

 

Maybe you could chime in with comments about what you've had to go through to get organized to be legally married in Mexico. I'm sure there are others that would love the information!

 

Good luck and happy planning!

[Nybride525]

We are getting married before Mexico but will not have my name changed at that point. Our 2 kids ( 1 mine 1 ours) have my last name and we discussed that I will not change my name until we can have theirs done as well so passports won't be a issue as they are in our legal names

[LissaSou]

Maybe you could chime in with comments about what you've had to go through to get organized to be legally married in Mexico. I'm sure there are others that would love the information!

 

Good luck and happy planning!

Whoops! Lol. I misread the title of the post and thought she was also asking about legal weddings as well, so I thought I'd throw in a quick post. That's what I get for only half reading things during my lunch hour . Sorry ladies!

 

There really doesn't seem to be much we have to do on our end. We have to be in the country for four business days before the wedding, so since we land on a Sunday we had the option of a Thursday or Friday wedding. We only have to bring our birth certificates with us, and the resort will bring someone in to do our blood tests. None of that bugged us, so we just opted to do it legally while we were there.

[BusyBee280]

We looked at the requirements for legal weddings and they weren't that bad-

 

Sending some paperwork to your coordinator (name, birthdays, addresses etc) the packet that we got was 5 pages. The forms would need to be completed to be sent to town hall where we would be getting married.

 

They said we would need to be there 4 business days before the wedding- have a blood test done (I think it was around 200 per person at the resort we are at),

 

Witness information

 

She mentioned that there would be more paperwork to send in once we hit the 2 month mark, but we decided against a legal ceremony already.

[nattiegams325]

We had planned on a legal wedding in Mexico but after lots of horror stories and at the advice from our travel agent and lots of brides, we are getting married at home before we go and having a symbolic ceremony (no one will know this though shhh). I don't feel like a courthouse wedding will feel very real anyways haha so our anniversary will be our wedding day in Mexico (Feb 23). Our courthouse only does weddings on Fridays but the Friday before we leave is Friday the 13th!! Not superstitious but ehhhhh we decided on the 6th instead :-)

 

Anyways the problem I've heard with legal weddings is that it's no problem when you're there (get there 4 business days before, bring birth certificates, blood test, etc), but it's when you get home where the trouble starts. Until you have your marriage certificate, you are not married in the eyes if the government. I have talked to brides who haven't gotten the certificate sent for months and months (the worst I've heard was over a year) and once you do get it, you have to pay to get it translated into English. During that time you cannot change your name, go onto your hubby's insurance, etc. So it just seems like added stress.

 

My symbolic ceremony is going to be the wedding I've always dreamed of :-)

[Nybride525]

We will be getting married prior to avoid the added stress