Will the marriage be legal right away??

So I am a bit confused about this. We are having a legal/civil ceremony at the Riu Playacar in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. From what I understand I will recieve a copy of the marriage lisence that day and then one in the mail a few months later. My concern is this.. will I legally be married as soon as I get back in the US or am I going to have to wait until I get the wedding license from Mexico in the mail?! I am begining to wish we would have planned this differently and gotten married at the court house before or after...

Hi Crystal,

We do many civil ceremonies and the couples always receive their marriage licence right away. You can just take this licence to the registry office in order to have your marriage registered in the states. Please note that the licence you receive in Mexico is in spanish so you will need to have this translated before you can summit it in the States. I would suggest you check with your register office if there is a certain time limit for you to register your marriage.

I have never heard that the licence was also send by mail afterwards and

I would suggest you to check with your wedding coordinator at the hotel what the difference is between the licence that you receive and the one send by mail.

I hope this information helps. Good luck.

Does anyone know the requirements for NY?

We got legally married in Mexico in July and once the ceremony is over, you are legally married.

Being from NY as well the only thing we had to worry about was Karen's name change stuff. According to the county clerks office (we asked a few different ones to make sure) the only way you would have to get the document translated is if you want to use it as a name change document. There is no need or requirement to register your Mexican wedding with the state.

Karen got around the name change stuff without getting our certificate translated just fine. The most difficult was DMV and she just worked around that by changing her name on credit cards, bills and such to get the amount of points needed to change her name.

So, yes our marriage is legal and we are very glad we did just the one ceremony down there.

Thanks for posting the answer. I was getting concerned. I really like the idea of having a spanish marriage certificate.