Confused Canadian

[Blackpearl]

Can somebody please break it down for me. By getting married at City Hall before we go, what does it mean for us. How will it make a difference for us in DR, why will it be cheaper.....Sorry y´all but it just doesn't make sense to me

[joshfrommontreal]

Yes it will be cheaper for you to be married in Punta Cana if you get married at city hall beforehand. You will save on translating official documents into spanish and then retranslating etc. Also, most resort wedding packages are cheaper for non-official ceremonies I would think mostly because they then do not have to get a judge to do the ceremony.

 

The resort will definitely ask you to provide a copy of your Canadian marriage certificate. That you got at City Hall.

[joshfrommontreal]

Yes it will be cheaper for you to be married in Punta Cana if you get married at city hall beforehand. You will save on translating official documents into spanish and then retranslating etc. Also, most resort wedding packages are cheaper for non-official ceremonies I would think mostly because they then do not have to get a judge to do the ceremony.

 

The resort will definitely ask you to provide a copy of your Canadian marriage certificate. That you got at City Hall.

[Blackpearl]

Ok... I'm getting it slowly. The only thing that Im still finding puzzling is don't we still have to send our Canadian documents to DR already translated before they will preform the wedding?? So how do we save?

[joshfrommontreal]

You shouldn't have to do any official translating if you are only doing a symbolic ceremony. You will have to show them your canadian certificate but I believe that is all.

 

What resort are you looking at?

[shellb]

Blackpearl,

 

To chime in with what Josh has said in his previous posts.

 

From my perspective, people that opt to do a symbolic ceremony do so for a number of reasons, mainly cost and simplifying the process. With a symbolic ceremony you:

• Do not have to pay to get your documents (birth certificate, notarized single status affidavit, etc) translated into Spanish. It is about $360US through the Dominican consulate in Ottawa, not sure on the price in the US.
• Do not have to pay for a judge (civil ceremony) or a priest (religious) at the resort. It is $620 US this year for a judge for the civil ceremony at the resort I am getting married at. If you do a civil ceremony in the country you live in (either by a judge or justice of the peace) you are paying for the marriage license in the province/state (about $150) you live in and the cost of a judge or justice of the peace (about $100).
• Do not have to wait for your marriage certificate, because the legal paperwork gets done in the country that you reside in and you get it really quickly.

I think a lot of couples that opt to go the route of symbolic ceremony, do a very basic civil ceremony only for the legality. I've read where couples do not do the ring exchange, the kiss, dress up, etc. They treat it like a legal transaction. They save the specialness of the rings, the dress, and the kiss for the symbolic ceremony that they do in front of friends and family.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Shellb