Getting "married" before DW?

We'll be married before the wedding in the Caribbean. It just seems easier than having to deal with translating paper work and getting a judge who is uber busy that day to marry us on the island!

We are also getting married in the states before we go to Mexico. We choose to do a "symbolic ceremony" because the resort we are getting married at does symbolic ceremonies in English by a non-denominational pastor. The civil ceremonies are done is spanish then translated to english (that was strange to us). Either way, most resorts make it very simple for you and help you with any documentation you might need. Good luck!

Totally normal! We are getting married here the week before we leave...that way it feels like Mexico will be our actual wedding! We didnt want the blood tests, dealing with paper work etc. Also it is a secret. We felt like guests wouldnt feel they needed to be there if it werent our real wedding....Shhh!

For those of you who opted to get married legally before your DW, did you do anything differently to arrange a symbolic ceremony at your location? Is it still considered a "wedding ceremony"? To us, our wedding in Jamaica will be our official wedding since our families will be there and we will say our vows in front of them. We actually lucked out and didn't have to pay to have our paperwork processed, and I only just now thought about getting married beforehand to move things along logistically. I just want to make sure that if we go this route we still get to enjoy all the perks of having a wedding there, not just a vow renewal, which at our resort doesn't include what the weddings do.

My FI and I are getting married almost a year before our 'real' wedding in JA. The decision for us was easy as our situation was a little complicated. He and I live in different countries (he in the US and me in CDA). When we looked over the immigration documents for me to move to the US after the wedding, it stated that if we got married in JA, my visa and immigration documents would have to be issued from JA, which meant I would have to move to Jamaica and wait until my visa was issued and then leave from JA to the US to be with my hubbie. NOT GONNA HAPPEN! So since we had already started telling people to plan for a wedding in JA, we decided to do a low key, court house ceremony before the wedding for legality sake. No one knows and we've decided to celebrate two anniversaries, but chances are we'll only celebrate the one with all our famililes and friends.

Nothing was different for me, except for the paperwork. Once you communicate to the resort that you want all the frills of the wedding, except the documentation, they'll be more than happy to accommodate you.

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Originally Posted by Asteff2001 For those of you who opted to get married legally before your DW, did you do anything differently to arrange a symbolic ceremony at your location? Is it still considered a "wedding ceremony"? To us, our wedding in Jamaica will be our official wedding since our families will be there and we will say our vows in front of them. We actually lucked out and didn't have to pay to have our paperwork processed, and I only just now thought about getting married beforehand to move things along logistically. I just want to make sure that if we go this route we still get to enjoy all the perks of having a wedding there, not just a vow renewal, which at our resort doesn't include what the weddings do.

as for the name change and passport and travel - just make sure you book your travel under whatever name is on your passport. like, i just traveled under my maiden name even though it's been about a year since my wedding, and legal name cahnge. but because my passport still has my maiden name, that's the name i booked my travel under. you can book travel under any name you wish!

We are going to get legally married here about a month before our wedding and then we're having our religious ceremony at the Church in Cabo. We just didn't want to have to worry about it there and having blood taken etc...