June 2013 brides- what are you doing?

[shannonmarie]

Originally Posted by Avborges 

 

Hey Ladies.. we are going through a bit of a dilemma... 

 

My travel agent mentioned way back when that if we get married in Mexico we wouldhave to get divorced in Mexico.. crazy to even mention that 4 weeks before our big day but it really stuck with us!  We don't even know if that's true..   I wanted to get married in the US and in Mexico - what are you guys doing?  A side of me wanted to have a legal wedding in Mexico so I don't feel I am cheating on our guests...  a side of me wants to get the proper sacrament in the church.. Can you guys tell me what your plans are?  Matt just thinks we should have a symbolic wedding there and then do the real thing here...  We can't find a good or bad reason for one or another...

 

xoxoxox

We have decided to do the symbolic ceremony in Mexico and get married (or do the paperwork as I like to call it), downtown at the courthouse 2 days before we leave. We will celebrate our Wedding Anniversary on our Mexico wedding date (6/14). We did this for a few reasons. I don't know about the divorce thing but I wouldn't doubt it. Our reasons are that it cost less to have a symbolic ceremony, everything is in Spanish, and you have to have it translated into English, they take your blood (we do not want our blood drawn in Mexico, I'm sure they do it all the time but just not something we wanted to do there), and we had to arrive 4 business days before our ceremony which we couldn't do, I think there was another reason we choose not to do the legal thing there but I can't think of it. We are both Catholic & the Catholic Church will not "recognize" our marriage so a few months after we get back we will have the church bless our marriage, I think it's called a Convalidation Ceremony or something like that. I'll have to check further into that to see what all we need to do. We are not advertising to anyone that we are doing "the paperwork" before hand, our parents do know though and I'm sure some guests may know if they ever researched DW's because this is a very common way, lots of people do it this way. It will only be my sister and my FI's bestman that come to the courthouse with us for our witnesses. Very casual, we are wearing jeans & we are not exchanging rings or anything.

[natalieblev]

Originally Posted by Avborges 

 

Hey Ladies.. we are going through a bit of a dilemma... 

 

My travel agent mentioned way back when that if we get married in Mexico we wouldhave to get divorced in Mexico.. crazy to even mention that 4 weeks before our big day but it really stuck with us!  We don't even know if that's true..   I wanted to get married in the US and in Mexico - what are you guys doing?  A side of me wanted to have a legal wedding in Mexico so I don't feel I am cheating on our guests...  a side of me wants to get the proper sacrament in the church.. Can you guys tell me what your plans are?  Matt just thinks we should have a symbolic wedding there and then do the real thing here...  We can't find a good or bad reason for one or another...

 

xoxoxox

We did not want to do a legal wedding in DR for many reasons. First the paperwork, meeting with the ambassador, filing all this stuff which seems like it would have taken almost  nine months for this location. Then the ceremony had to be done by a judge and there is only one judge in Punta Cana so the resorts would offer times of like 11am or 2pm for weddings to be held because there just wasnt enough judges to go around. That would have been horrible to me! Also the ceremony would be held in spanish which i did not want. Then there is the two month waiting period after you get married there to have it legalized in the U.S. and all the paperwork and documents sent back to you, I wanted to include my religious beliefs in my ceremony, but DR is basically all catholic and so the judges refused to do any Protestant faith readings or include anything like that. It was just a NO WAY from the very beginning. The symbolic ceremony we dont have to bring anything down at all, we hired our own pastor to perform (but you could have anyone do it, your brother, the Wedding Cordinator, etc) and its free, easy breezy and we get to include whatever we want in it. To be completely honest, I think my guests will enjoy this ceremony much better than one they cannot understand and will not even question if it is legal. 

And I will let ya in on a secret- My FI and I are actually already husband and wife. We got married at the courthouse. I wore a pretty summer dress, he had some khakis on and the judge read us our vows, we said them back, no rings were exchanged, but we went outside after and took some pictures, then drove to Indiana and went to a concert and spent the weekend with friends at Ribfest and have kept it a secret since haha!  We wont be celebrating anything on that day and will use our wedding day as an anniversary, but I will say it was one of the sweetest days of my life, we got to include my dog who wont be able to come, we were alone so it was very emotional and romantic and it will always be yet another day that i will look back on and be so thankful for! That is never a bad thing! We didnt want to tell anyone and wont because like you all have said it sort of feels like your cheating your guests, but to me it is not a big deal at all that we did it before...it will not change our wedding day in DR and it is just a sweet memory to keep forever! but thats just my opinion! 

[Billandstina]

We did not want to do a legal wedding in DR for many reasons. First the paperwork, meeting with the ambassador, filing all this stuff which seems like it would have taken almost  nine months for this location. Then the ceremony had to be done by a judge and there is only one judge in Punta Cana so the resorts would offer times of like 11am or 2pm for weddings to be held because there just wasnt enough judges to go around. That would have been horrible to me! Also the ceremony would be held in spanish which i did not want. Then there is the two month waiting period after you get married there to have it legalized in the U.S. and all the paperwork and documents sent back to you, I wanted to include my religious beliefs in my ceremony, but DR is basically all catholic and so the judges refused to do any Protestant faith readings or include anything like that. It was just a NO WAY from the very beginning. The symbolic ceremony we dont have to bring anything down at all, we hired our own pastor to perform (but you could have anyone do it, your brother, the Wedding Cordinator, etc) and its free, easy breezy and we get to include whatever we want in it. To be completely honest, I think my guests will enjoy this ceremony much better than one they cannot understand and will not even question if it is legal.  And I will let ya in on a secret- My FI and I are actually already husband and wife. We got married at the courthouse. I wore a pretty summer dress, he had some khakis on and the judge read us our vows, we said them back, no rings were exchanged, but we went outside after and took some pictures, then drove to Indiana and went to a concert and spent the weekend with friends at Ribfest and have kept it a secret since haha!  We wont be celebrating anything on that day and will use our wedding day as an anniversary, but I will say it was one of the sweetest days of my life, we got to include my dog who wont be able to come, we were alone so it was very emotional and romantic and it will always be yet another day that i will look back on and be so thankful for! That is never a bad thing! We didnt want to tell anyone and wont because like you all have said it sort of feels like your cheating your guests, but to me it is not a big deal at all that we did it before...it will not change our wedding day in DR and it is just a sweet memory to keep forever! but thats just my opinion! 

Natalie we're sharing the same secret I hadn't wanted to even acknowledge the "signing of the papers day" but it will actually be a day I'll never forget. We snuck down to the courthouse with my parents on their anniversary! My FI has been asking what my wedding dress looks like since I purchased it and I kept telling him its hot pink! I decided to surprise him at the courthouse by wearing a hot pink dress and heels So now we'll forever have a secret memory with my parents on their anniversary and have our "real" anniversary on June 15th which is sneaking up on us VERY fast! I have to say that since our secret I Do's I feel MUCH calmer about everything and having this fabulous secret is kind of fun! You girls are the first I've spilled the beans to! Lol! We both cant wait to wear our rings June 15th!!

[natalieblev]

Originally Posted by Billandstina 

 

 

Natalie we're sharing the same secret I hadn't wanted to even acknowledge the "signing of the papers day" but it will actually be a day I'll never forget. We snuck down to the courthouse with my parents on their anniversary! My FI has been asking what my wedding dress looks like since I purchased it and I kept telling him its hot pink! I decided to surprise him at the courthouse by wearing a hot pink dress and heels So now we'll forever have a secret memory with my parents on their anniversary and have our "real" anniversary on June 15th which is sneaking up on us VERY fast! I have to say that since our secret I Do's I feel MUCH calmer about everything and having this fabulous secret is kind of fun! You girls are the first I've spilled the beans to! Lol! We both cant wait to wear our rings June 15th!!

 

That is such a sweet thing to do with your parents!! Im sure it will always be a memorable day and we can never have too many of those!! And I totally agree on the calmer thing. I feel so much calmer about everything and am just looking forward to having a wonderful trip (Im sure ill get a little nervous the day of though!)   I would say to everyone who feels iffy about getting the courthouse done, but would rather not deal with the hassle of a legal wedding out of country- make it a fun day! Who says it has to be nothing to celebrate!

[natalieblev]

Originally Posted by MMK0386 

 

 

I feel like I'm in the same boat! I have most of the "projects" done but all the "list" stuff I still need to work on like you- photography want list, music, timelines, who's toasting, who's praying, etc... Ahh!

 

Good luck with everything on your list and your 8K!!

You too! ANd thanks!! I finally did the welcome letter and int last night with the resort map. And got all the spa appointments made and booked! I also started my photo list! Today is all about finding some suitcases, doing a mock welcome bag to see if i am missing anything, then working on the bouquet! 

[agm04]

Originally Posted by Avborges 

 

Hopefully both of you will finally add the ", CPA" after your names!  

 

BTW, I love the Cayman Islands!   Stingray Bay is so cool!

Fingers crossed!  I've actually never done stingray city but I love cayman and am getting so excited about the trip!

[agm04]

Has anyone done a boudoir shoot and made their own book?  I posted a separate thread but wanted to see if you guys have any opinions.  I need to make the book myself (photographer is way too expensive and would take too long if I ordered from her), but am not sure if I should use mixbook, shutterfly, snapfish, etc.  Any experience or recommendations?  I'll need to pay for rush shipping too, so need to know if any of these are really slow to process.  THANKS!

[shannonmarie]

Has anyone done a boudoir shoot and made their own book?  I posted a separate thread but wanted to see if you guys have any opinions.  I need to make the book myself (photographer is way too expensive and would take too long if I ordered from her), but am not sure if I should use mixbook, shutterfly, snapfish, etc.  Any experience or recommendations?  I'll need to pay for rush shipping too, so need to know if any of these are really slow to process.  THANKS!

I made my own through shutterfly. I found some coupons online & paid like $20 for it, i think it's like 20 pages. My photographer tried to charge about $450. I was like HECK NO! I put love & marriage quotes on one side an my photo on the other. It came out great & shipped within a week. I can't wait to give it to him! Highly recommend shutterfly ;-)

[kard613]

My plan for this weekend is to go thru everything I've accumulated, go over my long neglected lists and check things off that have been competed and rework a few things that I've decided to ditch, and ,are some reckons around actually bringing down all the small candles and votives that I had initially bought with the intention of using on the dinner tables. I've gotten a bad case of the F'its recently and don't want to bring down a ton of decor stuff...I think I'd rather chance it, spend a short visit to Walmart the first day we're there (we get to Mexico Saturday at noon and our weddings not till Thursday) and see if I can get some stuff there., and if not OH WELL!! I'm m getting super excited to do sme returning/exchanging of shower gifts and also doing so clothes shopping this weekend too!

[agm04]

Originally Posted by shannonmarie 

 

 

I made my own through shutterfly. I found some coupons online & paid like $20 for it, i think it's like 20 pages. My photographer tried to charge about $450. I was like HECK NO! I put love & marriage quotes on one side an my photo on the other. It came out great & shipped within a week. I can't wait to give it to him! Highly recommend shutterfly ;-)

AWESOME, great to know - thank you!!  Which book did you get - like which cover and what size?  Thanks for the info!!  I'm thinking I'll go with the 8x8 and leather hard cover.  Not exactly the kind of thing that'll be going on the coffee table.  Lol.