Civil vs. Religious Wedding

[tylersgirl]

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I need some advice. My FI and I are planning to have a wedding at RPRM in August. We had originally planned to have a civil (legal) wedding there at the hotel, but now after reading everyones posts we are reconsidering it. Should we just get married here at the JP before and have a religious wedding there? I am starting to think it will be such a hassle to do all the paperwork there and we want to have lots of vacation time....not a lot of running around to different govt. offices. For the ladies who got married at the JP before what date do you consider your anniversary? Your JP date or your destination wedding date? I am so confused...haha. Please let me know your opinion...I am clueless..Thanks so much. I appreciate it...Desiree

[nicollem]

I struggled with it too, but we've decided that we want to do it before we leave.

a lot less stress I would think.

We arent going to exchange rings or kiss, we want to save it for our "real" wedding in Mexico. I'm going to consider the destination wedding date the anniversary date, because to me, that's the real ceremony. That's where my family will be witnessing it.

[~*Kathy*~]

Hey tylersgirl!

 

I hope I didn't make you totally paranoid with my thread lol. I'm sorry if I did!

 

Anyhoo, I say if you really, really want to have a civil ceremony in RM, then you should totally do it, just make sure that whatever they tell you to do that you get it in writing. I'm keeping all of my emails between my wc and I incase she goes "that's not what I said to do" and I can say "uhhh yeah, it is!" and prove it hehe.

 

I have days where I think I should just do the JP thing and days where I think I should just stick with the civil ceremony.

[Ryan's girl]

My FI and I also struggled with the decision to have a civil vs. religious ceremony. Ultimately I think that it depends on what you and your FI want to do. Personally I just felt that it was important for me to have a legal ceremony so that's the way that we're going. As far as I understand it so far, most of the work for having the civil ceremony is done back home (which does seem to be a lot more work!). I can send you the info that I have with regards to preparing to have a legal ceremony if you would like.

Good luck!

[tylersgirl]

Nicollem-Thanks for all the great advice. I appreciate it.

 

Paraisobeachbride-Haha, no you didn't make me paranoid at all...I am just a worry wart. Thanks for the info about keeping everything in writing. I def. need to do that bc I know how WC's can be.

 

Ryan's girl-I would appreciate it if you could send me the info regarding the legal ceremony...just PM me...thanks so much!

 

-Desiree

[tylersgirl]

Nicollem-Thanks for all the great advice. I appreciate it.

 

Paraisobeachbride-Haha, no you didn't make me paranoid at all...I am just a worry wart. Thanks for the info about keeping everything in writing. I def. need to do that bc I know how WC's can be.

 

Ryan's girl-I would appreciate it if you could send me the info regarding the legal ceremony...just PM me...thanks so much!

 

-Desiree

[FutureMrsRoss]

We're getting our license in Colorado beforehand - and having the ceremony in Cancun. Colorado has a weird option for marriage licenses (which is SUPER cool in my opinion) in that you do not need an officiant - you can "marry yourselves." So - we'll get the license, do the ceremony in MX, sign it afterwards - and there we are!

 

So I'm sure Texas is different - but I like the idea of the easy breezy US process to the crazy MX process. Not only do you have to have the blood tests, extra expense for the officiant and all, but you'll also have to cross your fingers and wait for the paperwork. Ick.

 

Just my 2 cents!

[tylersgirl]

Wow! Yeah, I dont think Texas has that option...You are lucky! We have decided that we want to get married by the JP here and have the religious ceremony in MX. I still haven't told my parents yet, but I'm sure they will be okay with it. Now I just have to tell my WC to change it. I hope it doesn't mess things up!

[Mel&B]

We really struggled with this too. I had an opportunity to meet with my wedding planner and parents all together in San Francisco. My parents really wanted our Mexico ceremony to be our legal ceremony. However, our WC told us that is was a lot of work and would take us away from our guests for one full day. I've seen the list of required paperwork, and it's a bear. My parents were convinced that it would be best for us to be legally married in GA right before we leave for Mexico. We aren't telling any of our guests, and we will consider May 1st (religious ceremony in Mexico) to be our anniversary.

[TanyaNYC]

I am getting married in Cancun and they have such a long list of the requirements and procedures that you have to go through...

and then you still have to translate your marriage certificate... as for me I think its tooo much (I am just afraid that I'll forget something or they will give us a hard time with all the doc preparation there...) so we've decided to go with symbolic ceremony. I think it will be a lot less stressful! At the ceremony they still have a part were we sign the "certificate" so no one will even tell a difference..loll