Symbolic versus Legal Ceremony

[lesee]

We are getting married in the Dominican and they require blood tests etc. SO - we don't want to deal with that AT ALL...just having a civil ceremony 2 weeks before we head south!

[snowbeltchick]

Our friends were married in Punta Cana last year and had the legal ceremony in Ontario prior.  Of our group of friends that went, I think my fiance and I are the only ones who actually know  

 

They just didn't exchange rings, etc. at the legal ceremony.  Just said the bare minimum that is required under the Marriage Act so it didn't feel like their actual wedding.
 

Originally Posted by lesee 

We are getting married in the Dominican and they require blood tests etc. SO - we don't want to deal with that AT ALL...just having a civil ceremony 2 weeks before we head south!

[lesee]

We're keeping ours quiet as well - my FI's sister and husband are the only one's who know - she's preggers and due in May (we're going to DR in April) and she won't be able to travel so her and her husband are going to be our witnesses and we'll have a private little celebration with them.
 

Originally Posted by snowbeltchick 

Our friends were married in Punta Cana last year and had the legal ceremony in Ontario prior.  Of our group of friends that went, I think my fiance and I are the only ones who actually know  

 

They just didn't exchange rings, etc. at the legal ceremony.  Just said the bare minimum that is required under the Marriage Act so it didn't feel like their actual wedding.
 

 

[Brenners]

That is a nice idea of keeping it on the dl.  I think I will look into the requirements for the legal ceremony more with our wc once we make a final decision on a resort.  I like the idea of having one day and not dealing with having to do a separate legal ceremony on top of the DW.  Thanks ladies!

[Ali12]

We are getting married at home before we go and keeping it on the dl, just telling our two witnesses. We feel it is too much of a hassel to do the legal one in Mexico, this way we don't have to worry about all the blood work and documents down there. 

[Brenners]

I have read reviews from other brides having the legal ceremony and it doesn't sound like too much of a hassle.  I am strongly leaning in that direction...

[JayKay]

It really varies from resort to resort.  We first wanted to get married in Mexico and that was one of the things we asked the WC at potential resorts what the legal requirements are.  Some you had to be there two days, some as many as four days.  The cost for the blood tests was also different everywhere.  And I don't know about the US but the make it legal in Canada you have to have everything translated back to english and that was going to cost a lot of money.  We finally chose Jamaica as its much easier to get legally married there.

[Brenners]

I find that so funny that there is no set price for anything.  So typical of everything I have come across thus far...  lol 

[mochamakes3]

We had our legal wedding in Cancun two weeks ago. We paid the resort $300, this included our blood tests and the justice of the peace. We had to bring certified copies of our birth certificates, which we got from the provincial government where we were born, and our passports and tourist cards, which are given to you when you pass immigration. We supplied 4 witnesses who also had to bring passports and tourist cards. The resort photocopied everything and gave it right back. I don't know if they had to translate anything, but we were not charged anything extra. We were supposed to have everything done 3 business days in advance. We did provide all the names, addresses and nationalities in advance.

 

We haven't received our marriage certificate yet, but I have heard various opinions on getting them translated before being able to change names. I will just keep using the Spanish version to change my name until someone disallows it.

[redginger]

We'll probably have a quick, simple legal ceremony at home prior to our destination wedding, which will be symbolic. We're not telling anyone as we're only doing the legal part to avoid the future hassle of dealing with legal documents from another country. We did have somewhat of a dilemma about which date to celebrate as our anniversary and we decided the symbolic ceremony is the important one.