The 7 letter word & legalities

[meck64]

Hi!

 

I'm a newbie and I'm not sure if this is the proper forum, so please forgive me. I've been thinking that a destination wedding is a great idea for my second marriage, but a friend told me that as I live in Ontario, Canada, the divorce laws here are such that if I get married in a foreign country & if the worst should happen, I have to get a divorce in the courts of the country where I married. Is this true? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Liz

[Emmers]

I'm not 100% sure on the legality of the issue, however, most (if not all) destination wedding locations allow you to do a symbolic ceremony. That way, it will be official wherever you choose to actually sign the paperwork (i.e., home), but it will appear as though you are tying the knot at the destination with all of your friends and family.

[carolina24]

Oooo that would NOT be good. Maybe you could have a quicky legal court ceremony in Canada and then a symbolic ceremony in the country of your choice. That's what we're doing b/c it's a hassle to get legally married in MX. you have to have documents translated, get blood tests, and (this is what really turned us off) you have to be at the resort 3 to 5 days BEFORE the wedding, depending on the resort. We wanted to have a week after the wedding for our honeymoon so it works better to get married here first. good luck!!

[Mischaka]

well the best thing to do is make it legal at home and have the symbolic ceremony at the destination. that way you cut all the legalities from the other country. and save on those extra fees too.

[meck64]

Thanks for the great advice, everyone!

[Kristy!]

Most likely (this is the case for the US in relation to St. Lucia), if Canada recognizes your marriage in a foreign country, that country will recognize a divorce in Canada. So in my situation, if DH and I were to separate, we wouldn't have to go through St. Lucia's court system, we would go through the US.

 

To be honest, I don't think it would be a problem.