Before or After???

[jessiee223]

We are planning to do the legal ceremony before we leave. I think that guests will understand if we tell them that the requirements are too stringent. Blood tests, translating documents, witnesses, etc. add stress that couples don't need on their wedding day. One other thing that may become a plus for getting married before is the "honeymoon specials" some hotels offer. In the fine print it will sometimes state that the legal marriage certificate needs to be presented to get the special deals. Not sure how strict they are with this or if all resorts do this though.

[Ms325i]

My FI & I live in different countries..he's from the US therefore we will be having a legal ceremony and then having our DW as our symbolic ceremony. I would prefer to just have the DW as our legal wedding but because of immigration reasons we have decided it would make things easier to get married legally in the US first.

[amynjoe]

We are doing ours before we go to Mexico, but keeping it a secret. When we get married in Mexico, that will be our official anniversary date

[KLC77]

We did ours before and didn't tell anyone. The jp we used knew we were heading to Mexico and that would be our real wedding to us, so he skipped a bunch of the typical stuff and just got down to business and married us. I was worried it would take away from our Mexico wedding, but it definitely didn't. We were really informal for our legal ceremony, so the first time we said all of our vows was in Mexico.

 

As for what to tell people, we told those who asked that we did have to fill out some paperwork in the US before we got married to make sure it was legal (and really to us that's what it was). But those who didn't ask we didn't say anything to and we didn't come straight out and say we were already married to those who asked.

[cruisebride0410]

I'm glad to hear these brides who got legally married in the US don't feel like it took away from their real big day. I am in the same situation - I am going on a cruise wedding and will not be in the Bahamas for 24 hours before the wedding, so I can't be legally married there. I definitely agree with thinking about the legal ceremony as "paperwork" and not tell people it even happened.

[flbluiiis]

We were thinking before the DW. I'm also happy to see that it didn't take away from the ceremony with family and friends!

[mexicana bride]

Thanks everyone for your input!

I'm glad to hear also that it didn't ruin the DW ceremony by doing the legal stuff first. We're going to do what the poll suggests...legal stuff 1st before we leave!!!!

I'm so excited to be married to him anyways, that I'm glad we're doing it first. Maybe I also won't be such a cry-baby in front of everyone at the DW ceremony, LOL.

[tylersgirl]

I voted for before because we were so tired when we got back from Mexico. We just wanted to relax

[*Nadine*]

we are doing ours before as well and not telling anyone. I dont think anyone would even think to ask us beforehand if we were getting legally married here. and if they did, then we would say what others have said, that we had to do some paperwork here but our wedding day would be the day in mexico. They can take it as they want!

[Kristin_And_Stewart]

We're doing ours before! And we're not bringing anyone with us, its just paperwork. The day that matters is our DW!