Need Advice on Marriage process for destination weddings in Mexico..

Hi ladies!

Quick question- For those of you who have had your weddings in Mexico, whats the "easiest"/popular way to handle the marriage process, since U.S. doesnt legally recognize a marriage in Mexico. Do most of you just get married beforehand in U.S./locally to bypass all the blood tests and tedious process/requirements of Mexico? We were thinking of just getting married at home in U.S. a week before we headed to our wedding in Playa del Carmen, Mexico to make the process easier, since we are just having a religious ceremony is Mexico and not the civil one..and just not telling anyone. I know a few of my other friends having destination weddings are talking about doing the same thing..

Any insight/advise here is appreciated, as Id like to get feedback on what others have done..!! Thxs!

We plan on getting married here too before we go to Puerto Vallarta. We are also having a Catholic ceremony and are going to avoid all the paperwork for the legal ceremony.

Hi, thxs for your feedback! Are u having a formal ceremony at home before your one in Mexico as well, or just doing like a J.O.P thing?

nothing formal.. we will either go to the courthouse or Vegas!

OK, thxs alot for your feedback and congrats on your engagement!

some people (like me) get married before...

other's like ann (akh) get married on their honeynoon (she went to hawaii)

and a bunch get legally married in mexico.

i guess it depends on what works for you...for us we knew we did not want to legally get married in mexico for a few reasons:

1. DH does not do shots well...either do i..i bruise with blood tests, but he faints

2. we wanted to have our own officiant for our ceremony and not have it in spanish

3. we actually got married a few months ahead for insurance reasons.

I guess it depends on where you go and who you talk to, but my local courthouse told me I didn't need to do anything else. We were going to go do a quick legal ceremony when we got home (although we did have a legal ceremony in Cabo), but when we scheduled the appointment and I explained our situation, they asked us why we wanted to get married again, and told me the marriage is recognized.

I took my paperwork (in Spanish) and was able to get a Social Security card, Driver's license, and change all my accounts (banking, credit cards, etc). I know others have had more trouble, but for me it was quite painless.

Originally my FI wanted to do the legal one in Mexico...but we have since changed our minds because I don't want to deal with the blood tests and spanish docs, etc. We are going to do the legal courthouse deal here about a week before we leave, or I may make it more of a "ceremony" for those that can't come to our Mexico ceremony and are complaining. All depends what I can organize and have time for!

We are doing it in the US ahead of time. I'm excited for it to be a day just for the two of us. I've told my mom so far & she thought it was a great idea. I don't think a wedding in mexico is that hard, but I didn't like having to get there so far in advance. We'd rather have more time after the wedding in mexico, than before. It's also saving us a bunch of money this way & we can have the ceremony however we want it. There is a great thread on here somewhere of what people decided to do. It helped me make this choice.