Anyone get married overseas?

[MrSquished]

Looking to get married next spring but we don't want to do the whole big wedding thing here and are considering eloping, with our family's blessing, to somewhere in Europe - then having a low key party when we get back maybe in a family member's backyard or a nice brunch spot or something.

Each country seems to have different requirements to make it a legal wedding. Like we checked out Spain for Barcelona but it wouldn't be official, just ceremonial. So we are investigating other countries.

Anyone ever actually do it?

 

[IronWing]

Lots of people do.

 

[MrSquished]

Lots of people do.

I know I just want to hear personal experiences. And also if their ceremony was considered a legal one or just ceremonial.

 

[lxskllr]

If it were me, I'd get married at the courthouse, go have a nice vacation(honeymoon), then come back and have a party for the relatives.

 

[MrSquished]

If it were me, I'd get married at the courthouse, go have a nice vacation(honeymoon), then come back and have a party for the relatives.

Exactly it! Except we are combining the vacation/honeymoon with the getting married part. We'll fly to Europe, just us two - get married, spend another week there, then come back and have a low-key shindig for the close folks.

 

[lxskllr]

Exactly it! Except we are combining the vacation/honeymoon with the getting married part. We'll fly to Europe, just us two - get married, spend another week there, then come back and have a low-key shindig for the close folks.

I guess I was saying get married in the States by the government. That way's foolproof and guaranteed. You could then have a small ceremony overseas, and it wouldn't matter how "official" it is since you'll have your US stamp of approval already. Might save some bureaucratic hassle when you get back. One less thing to worry about.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

We had our main wedding overseas, but did a court wedding here in the States with just us + witnesses, so technically we were married twice.

A colleague got married overseas in Europe, and had to have all the wedding docs translated into both languages (or something like that) for it to be legal in the USA, but only got married once. It was more of a paperwork thing (he hired a somebody in the country they got married in to handle it) - I was too lazy and just did it twice.

 

[Rumpltzer]

What you need to ask yourself is, what is married in Murica? Is there a national registry? If you get married in California, are you also married in Texas? How do they know?

Now, say you're German, and you live in Germany, and you get married in Germany. Then you move to Murica. Are you still married in Murica? How do they know?

 

[Exterous]

I have friends who got married in the DR. They chose that country over others because the requirements to make it official were not as difficult as other places. Planning the actual ceremony was a PITA though as distance and language barriers played into it (And don't assume that just because someone speaks english that they actually understand what you mean. Nuances are rarely translated well)

What you need to ask yourself is, what is married in Murica? Is there a national registry? If you get married in California, are you also married in Texas? How do they know?

They ask for your marriage certificate

 

[brianmanahan]

no, but i'm married to the sea