Yea it's all very confusing, but wedding coordinator has all the specifics on what you have to have for civil. If you do symbolic it is not legal in USA, you would need to go to court house and be married to be legal. A lot of brides have done a private ceremony at the court house prior to Mexico, but not told there families and use Mexico as the anniversary date. I'll look through my emails and find what all you need tor it to be legal.