Legal vs. Symbolic - Need your guys HELP esp from past DR brides

[Bryjenbry]

I was advised by the WC and Pastor that it would be a hassle to have a legal wedding in the DR and that I should just take care of the legal ceremony in the U.S. prior to our DR wedding date.  My FI and I really are not in favor of this, we want to actually get married in the DR on that specific date.....  Have any of the past DR bride come across any complications during a legal wedding or do you have any advice for us?  

 

 

[islandbride8]

Check out this post: http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/thread/66580/help-they-arent-sending-me-my-marriage-certificate-melia-punta-cana

 

This is the reason we switched to a symbolic ceremony.  i was completely against symbolic at first, but after reading this i didn't think twice about switching!  Good Luck

[spaterson]

We switched to symbolic as well which I wsa totally against at first. After I saw all the documentation requirements and added up the additional fees (judge, notary, etc...) we decided to just get maried here first. We're keeping our legal ceremony pretty hush hush so it doesn't detract from our symbolic wedding. My fiancee and I decided that hte legal part is just for paper but our hearts and souls will join in front of our family and friends in the DR.

[islandbride8]

That's exactly what we're doing.  My fiance's father is very sick so his parents can't come to our DW   so this kinda worked out for the better.  We're having our parents come with us too, but that's it.  no one else know's we'll already be married (not even siblings).  Pastor York is performing our ceremony and he's bringing a wedding certificate for us and our witnesses to sign, so it looks legitimate.  We will celebrate our anniversary on our DW date.  We aren't exchanging rings before DW, we're just going to walk through whatever motions/say what they want us to say at the courthouse.  I'm just going to act like it's something we have to do before our real wedding

[Bryjenbry]

Thanks for your input ladies...

 

[mandys]

I was also against symbolic at first, but not anymore. Im all for it. Why are you going to spend a thousand dollars and hours of stress for a piece of paper. What is important to me, are the vows and ring exchange. That is what matters! No one has to know either

[MandyB]

Islandbride, you will love Pastor York!  He was amazing!  Everyone at the wedding (and even the onlookers) kept commenting how great he was.

We also had the symbolic wedding down in Punta Cana.  I have 2 stepsons and we wanted to include them in the wedding somehow.  So, we went to city hall with them before we left and had a nice little ceremony.

Originally Posted by islandbride8 

That's exactly what we're doing.  My fiance's father is very sick so his parents can't come to our DW   so this kinda worked out for the better.  We're having our parents come with us too, but that's it.  no one else know's we'll already be married (not even siblings).  Pastor York is performing our ceremony and he's bringing a wedding certificate for us and our witnesses to sign, so it looks legitimate.  We will celebrate our anniversary on our DW date.  We aren't exchanging rings before DW, we're just going to walk through whatever motions/say what they want us to say at the courthouse.  I'm just going to act like it's something we have to do before our real wedding

 

[foxytv]

We had a notary do our legals in the US before we left for our DW, but noone knew. Cheaper and less stress and noone had a clue. Ceremonies are basically identical, except for the price and extra paperwork hassles if you do legals in the DR. Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk