vows/legal ceremony question

[MarissaDC]

Forgive me for sounding ignorant, but why wouldn't you just do the entire legal ceremony in Mexico? Is there an advantage to doing the legal part before you go?

[ACDCDCAC]

marissa, lots of reasons, the 2 biggest ones are 1) its less expensive to have a "vow renewal" ceremony at most resorts than the legal one. 2) its just all around "easier" to do the legal beforehand, less paperwork, no blood tests (depending on state), and many more reasons.

 

yamille, as far as vows, etc for legal ceremony at home, i know in WA state, the part where you both have to answer with "i do" is the only required part that needs to be said. and lots of girls here just went to the courthouse or whatever and the JP or person who handles it will normally have a little schpeel, like "ok you both want to get married, right" (yes) and you both take the other as your lawfully married etc, right" (yes) haha not so boring like that, but you get the idea

 

you could probably call or go in and ask how they handle the vows or what they have you say or do, that might help perpare you have fun!

[staceysbride]

Marissa-

For some, the hassle of having to get a bunch of documents Apostilled, and translated, plus the blood work and associated fees, and then having your marriage stuff translated back to english when you come home is too much hassle/headache/paperwork/insert adjective of your choice here.

 

I know for me and my fiance' we decided to do a legal wedding beforehand and just go down to Mexico and do the ceremony. Onlookers will NOT know the difference between your ceremony unless they've been to other legal DW's where the bride and groom signed their cert during the ceremony. Otherwise, it looks just like a normal ceremony to them. Plus, doing the legal part early will allow us to get the other paperwork hassles associated with marriage out of the way such as insurance change overs, name changes on CC's, etc. The only thing I will have to change when we come back is my name on my Passport and DL. Everything else will be done.

[Soon To Be Mrs. Gomez]

We are just gong to use the vows that the court house uses as standard. I think they are pretty boring but I don't mind because it wil make the spiritual ceremony in Mexico much nicer.

[Duchess]

Also, since a legal wedding in Mexico is done by a judge, it may very well be in Spanish. If you want something really beach and spiritual with fun sand ceremonies etc, it has to be a "vow renewal". Plus, I think you have to be in Mexico for a few days to take care of paperwork before the wedding. It just is really difficult. Oh, and on top of everything, I have heard of people failing the blood test right before!!! And it was FALSE POSITIVES!!! So I wouldnt have risked it.

 

We got married in Vegas months before. It was our little secret, and while I thought it would be cheezy, it was still very meaningful. I cried. I wore a white sundress, he a navy suit, and we had a nice dinner after. No one even really knew we were there. Then we drove to long beach, got on a 4 day cruise, enjoyed being the honeymooners for a few, and then came home to our little secret. It took NOTHING away from the mexico wedding, because they felt really different from each other. The private one was for us, and the Mexico wedding was great because we shared with our loved ones.

 

The funny thing is we purposely picked a cheesy Vegas place to do it, and they did such a nice job, it didnt even feel that cheesy! We did stay in the Stratosphere on our wedding night. Ew. haha.

 

Oh, and to answer the question that was asked before I rambled on and on, we did their standard ceremony. We waited till Mexico to do our own vows.

[staceysbride]

duchess- I always wondered about doing the whole vegas wedding thing. I think it would be fun. I always think i'd do the bellagio or the mgm. Now, i'm gonna ask you the question i bet everyone who hears 'vegas' and 'wedding' in the same sentence probably asks.....did'ya get elvis ? ? ? ? ? LOL

 

[sunsetbride1]

We are doing the legal thing before we go to DR.. We are doing it at FI's grandmother's house as she is too elderly/ill to make it to the wedding and can barely leave the house. That being said, we are going to do the bare minimum to make it legal.. not dressing up (perhaps wear a white sundress but that's it), etc.

 

In DR - we will exchange rings, vows and it will be our "real" wedding day.

[TinaM2b]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarissaDC Forgive me for sounding ignorant, but why wouldn't you just do the entire legal ceremony in Mexico? Is there an advantage to doing the legal part before you go?

Several answers have been written as a response but I wanted to add one more. It was scary for us to give ALL our information to people in a foreign country. I have heard of manyy identity theft problems stemming from travel to Mexico or other foreign countries. I have also read cautions of even using your credit cards or debit cards there.

A funny side note, we just recently went to New Orleans for one of their annual festivals with a lot of friends. We decided this year to take enough cash for the first day and travel checks for the rest of the days there. We COULD NOT find places that would take or cash travelers checks. It was almost ridiculous. After all the trouble of going and buying them, we still were constantly hitting the ATMs machines and paying those fees. Now we are a little worried about Mexico too!! Hopefully, we can cash travelers checks there if needed.

[H&F]

Just wondering, has anyone done the legal ceremony after the DW?

 

I thought I read that somewhere on here but can't seem to find it.

 

Also, do any of you know if its just a resort policy that requires you to bring proof of your legal ceremony? We are renting a villa for our wedding so I'm wondering if then whoever is marrying us won't care to ask if we are already legally married.

 

I'm really have my heart set on having the legal ceremony in mexico but am trying to figure out my other options if it won't work out. I think my family and friends will not understand if we were to be "legally" married before the DW and I'm a horrible lier so it would stress me out to much.