April 2010 Brides

Thanks Tracy! I've got a couple checklists but of course they always have more than you need so that you don't miss anything and I feel like I just keep deleting stuff! LOL!

Thanks for the to-do list, Tracy. I have a site I use where I can check things off but I've gotten paranoid lately that I'm forgetting something so it's nice to see what other people have.

woohooo!!!! i am loving this check list!!!

here's thought- I went to inquire about my marriage liscense at my town municipal building and you know what they said...
we can't do anything for you, your getting married in Jamaica. As long as your legally married in Jamaica your legally married. Will the USA acknowledge my marriage that lady sounded like a bunch of crap.

I am so glad it was helpful!

what's with the knot sign? big promo!! lol

If I'm not mistaken, the requirements to get married in Jamaica are much like they would be locally. I had a friend at work who eloped to Jamaica specifically because there aren't any requirements as far as being in the country for a certain number of days or doing bloodwork or having paper work translated.

Are you having a full legal wedding in Jamaica, or just a symbolic wedding? Because if you're having a legal wedding there, then I think the woman was right that you don't have to get a marriage license locally - you would just have to use your marriage certificate and paperwork from Jamaica to register the marriage in the US.

However, if you're doing a symbolic wedding in Jamaica and a legal one in the US then you would have to go through the full process locally including getting the marriage license and registering in the US.

I'm sure there is another thread for brides who have been or will be getting married in Jamaica and they could give you better details than I can... but the comments above will hopefully get you started!!!

Angie - from what I know the Jamaica marriage is valid in the US but it takes a long time to get the marriage certificate, which is one of the reasons a lot of people get married in the US first and then do a symbolic ceremony at the resort.

We're going to get married at the resort...I wanted to do it here first but we decided if we're going through all of the trouble to have everyone down there, we might as well do the real ceremony down there too.

Hehehe, we're just doing a symbolic ceremony in Mexico but not a soul will know that it isn't legal. Now we just have to figure out when we're doing our legal signing here. Initially we'd planned to do it after we got back so that the wedding in mexico was our first shot at it, but now I really want to do it sooner!! Like tomorrow!!! I keep trying to convince FI that we should go get it done and he won't have any of it! LOL! I'm sometimes convinced that he doesn't want to marry me at all and is happy "pretending" at it by having the symbolic ceremony.

 

I think it would be hilarious to have that big a secret to keep but in the end I would probably end up busting my own bubble. I'm good at that

I thnk if we did it here secretly the guilt of getting married without my parents there would haunt me forever...lol!

Hehe oh no!! I guess because we originally didn't think that my parents would be able to come with us to Mexico, I had already gotten used to the idea of them not being there. Plus, we're going to do the most basic and least involved legal signing as humanly possible so that it's no more formal than when we opened our joint bank account LOL!

Seriously, my mother told me if I eloped she would never forgive me and even after she died she would haunt me for all eternity. We're Jewish. Guilt is our specialty. When I mentioned the possibility of getting married in Jersey first, she kept asking when and where and who would be the witness...and I wouldn't do that without her would I....on and on...I can stand up to her on almost anything, but I think this would make her cry...and that would kill me.

 

meanwhile, FMIL says, go do what you want and be happy. AND he's an only child. Go figure.