It isn’t uncommon in Mexico to have a two- or three-part wedding, including an extravagant reception, beautiful church ceremony and a quieter civil ceremony, where the bride and groom make their marriage legal in front of a civil judge. While a three-part wedding may seem outlandish, in Mexico, the civil ceremony is required to make a wedding legal, and therefore has become a key element when organizing a wedding in Mexico.
Getting Legally Married in Mexico
Fearing an elaborate process and additional paperwork, many foreigners who want to tie the knot in Mexico, forgo the civil wedding and simply schedule a symbolic ceremony that holds no legal bearing in any nation. These individuals typically opt for signing paperwork in their native lands before or after the main event, believing that they are saving themselves from the extra work. The reality, however, is that getting legally married in Mexico isn’t as difficult as one may think, and the benefits far outweigh the alternatives which can often take the romance out of one’s wedding day.
Why get married legally in Mexico?
Many resorts throughout Mexico offer wedding services, where in addition to taking care of all the dazzling details of a beautiful wedding ceremony and reception, they provide brides and grooms with the necessary contacts for agents who specialize in making weddings between foreigners legal in the country of Mexico. These trusted agents, who work for many resorts throughout the most popular wedding destinations, assist guests in ensuring they have all the proper paperwork and even accompany couples to the courthouses where a judge officiates the civil wedding.
Some resorts take destination wedding planning even further by eliminating the need for brides and grooms to ever leave the resort, as is the case at Tafer’s Villa del Palmar Cancun resort. This full wedding service allows guests to fill out paperwork, perform the necessary blood tests and remain at the resort for the civil ceremony.
While the requirements for getting legally married in Mexico differ by state, a legal ceremony usually takes no more than 10 to 20 minutes and is the only way to ensure that your marriage is recognized in other countries of the world, such as Canada and the United States. Legal ceremonies require very little planning on part of the bride and groom due to the fact that there is a legal ceremony outline that typically cannot be modified. As long as the bride and groom supply the appropriate paperwork, which might include originals and copies of birth certificates, blood tests, and documentation of prenuptial classes, then a civil ceremony can proceed.
The necessary requirements for each Mexican state may vary, which makes using a wedding agent a helpful element to planning your legal wedding in Mexico.
