Legal marriage before going away (Canadian Brides)

We are planning on this too, but probably not telling anyone about it! I may even see if one of my friend's fathers will do the ceremony for us. He performs weddings all the time... he's a bit theatrical though! I'm definitely getting my smooch! But I think we'll keep it casual and light-hearted. The Mexican wedding is definitely the 'real' one for us.

The reason we're doing this is

1) cheaper (we now don't have to pay for all the documents to be translated and notorized).

2) easier (way less translation of documents - FI was married before, shorter time to get certificate, less stuff to do in Mexico)

3) safer (re: Heather above, blood tests)

I remember that when I was researching resorts, I think it may have been DR that some places' packages were waayyy cheaper if it was just the vow renewal vs. the actual marriage. As it is with our resort, there's no difference. Oh well. (sigh).

For us, we are going to have a preacher perform the ceremony though in Mexico. And both of my sisters (BMs), who are going to be 'witnesses' will not know and still sign a certificate.

I think getting married first is a pretty common practice. It seems like a lot of people do it that way.

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I'm starting to think more & more about doing this! Oh boy...decisions, decisions!!

We're doing this too. Have you checked out the thread Ana started, kinda along the same idea? http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t30437

For us, we liked that this meant we could use our own officiant (in addition to saving the hassle and $$ of doing the legal requirement down there).

The whole reason we decided to get married in Jamaica was so we didnt have to bother with blood tests/chest xrays (no one has been able to tell me the exact reasoning for either) and we dont have to bother with translation of docs. Yay for Jamaica!

Same thing here! Saves a lot of $$ actually at our resort, and I don't want to have to worry about all the paperwork, blood tests (that just freaks me out hehe), and whatnot. I am going to be there 3 days before and this just seemed the best way to go.

Also, since we aren't having guests coming with us, our parents are going to at least see us "married" (everyone understands that the legal day is NOT our wedding day) and then be at the big AHR.

We aren't telling anyone about our legal day. We just plan on going down [where ever we go] on a Friday afternoon, then go out for supper and maybe a movie or drinks afterwards. Nothing to big. We haven't even picked out a day yet, need to get on that.

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Oh, by the way, I absolutely love your picture of your kitty-cat. I think that I have said that before too.

I have four, and they all love to play in the sink, plus the toilet. The newest thing at the moment- our one cat "dunks" his play mice in the toilet, leaving puddles everywhere and wet gross mice laying around.

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i was going to do the legal ceremony in mexico too but then decided to have a quick legal one here then a symbolic one in mexico.

i had friends who live in toronto who got married in mexico in dec and i think it was august and she still didn't have her last name changed to his because they were having issues with the spanish documents. i don't know if it was getting them translated or canada wasn't accepting them for a name change or what. but that sealed the deal to do it legally in canada for me.

that and we can skip the blood test which just seemed like a hassle