Symbolic wedding – What to expect? – Weddings & Honeymoons – Debbie's Carribean Reviews Forums

After reading a few of the marriage certificate posts on this forum, we are starting to rethink the civil ceremony.
I wash hoping brides who had a symbolic ceremony could describe what took place – were the vows similar to a civil ceremony? Who performed the ceremony? signing of papers? How long did it last?

THANKS!!

i am curious about this too…any info is greatly appreciated.

thanks:)

We are also having a symbolic ceremony and we have been told that our guests will not be able to tell the diffference at all. I have heard that they make you sign a marriage certificate and everything.

Is this like a symbolic commitment without the commitment? :

Or is it just a pretend wedding so that if things don’t work out you can just have a symbolic divorce?

It will be the same as the legal ceremony, but it will not be legal. It’s a huge money saver, though, which is why we’ve decided to go that route. We are signing the legal papers a few days before we leave the US, but not exchanging vows, rings etc or having a ceremony until the DR … and we will celebrate our DR wedding as our wedding date, sicne that’s when we exchange vows and when friends and family witness our commitment.

actually, it is to avoid the issues that arise so often with the ONLY judge in punta cana. Also, it is to avoid the headache of having paperwork translated and having to wait months and months for your wedding certificate. and…it is to avoid the extra charges associated with having the marriage be legal in a country that we do not even live in, anyway.

all the jazz, none of the hassle. in my honest opinion.

the logistics are not what matters, it is the vows that we exchange in front of family and friends (whether considered legal in the DR or not) that matter.

i am so sick of people looking down on symbolic ceremonies.

I’m sorry but I am not looking down on anything or anybody. I honestly have never heard of a symbolic marriage before and I wouldn’t know what it is. I figured it was probably a money saving 2nd ceremony for people who are already married, a precautionary step between engaged and the actual marriage, or just just a trial run with no strings attached. Apparently, it can be a money saving initial procedure for people who take care of the legal aspect elsewhere. Perhaps different people can have varying status and reasons for these symbolic weddings.

In any case, congratulations and good luck.

What is the price difference between a symbolic ceremony and a legal one? If the only difference is the cost of the priest and the paperwork compared to the cost of the symbolic priest, how much can it be? Are priests highly paid in the DR? How much is the paperwork?

It’s hard to imagine that these costs are relevant compared to the costs of everybody going to the DR.

i apologize if i came across as being a bit harsh…but if you spend any time in the melia forum, you will notice that this was a hot topic of discussion a couple weeks ago…and many people don’t agree with the symbolic ceremony. to each their own, i spose.

i havent done the actual math, but it’s a pretty big difference in price…maybe 1000 or more? im not sure…can anyone give him a price breakdown?

at any rate, it’s not worth the time, money, or hassle for us. in addition to the added fees, there are many scheduling problems with the priest too…and in some cases he doesnt even show up on time, leaving you with no other choice but a last minute symbolic ceremony done by the wedding coordinator–but still having to pay for a full legal marriage and signing papers AFTER the actual ceremony with the judge. silly.

anyway sorry.

In the US, you only have 30 days from the date of your legal marriage to switch over health insurance and other neccessities … and since the DR paperwork can take months to receive, many US couples would miss that window of opportunity. For us, it’s just not worth it, so we are signing our legal paperwork in the US, but having the cermeony in the DR.

And as Flutterby804 has mentioned, the price difference is enormous. It’s about $1500 for the legal DR ceremony and about $400 for the symbolic.

Spending the money to get to the DR is one thing. Spending another $1500 for the ceremony (when you are already paying extra for the reception, flowers, Dj, etc) is difficult to swallow on a budget, at least for us it was.

also, doesnt it cost extra for the translation, paperwork, and judge fees? or is that what is included in the 1400?

Thank you ladies! I always thought that going thru all of that hassle with the judge, the paperwork, the stress of getting your date approved…was just crazy.

The symbolic ceremony is just perfect for the stress free bride, such as myself. My marriage will be legal here in NY as soon as we go to City Hall and sign the papers.
No hassles and no waiting for the legalized and translated papers to be sent to me.

I am 100% sure i want to have symbolic ceremony and no one will even know the difference. my wedding date will always be the day we got married on the beach with my friends and family…

Best wishes to all and Happy holidays!!

[quote author=bouttime board=wedding thread=1196783367 post=1196892583]Thank you ladies! I always thought that going thru all of that hassle with the judge, the paperwork, the stress of getting your date approved…was just crazy.

The symbolic ceremony is just perfect for the stress free bride, such as myself. My marriage will be legal here in NY as soon as we go to City Hall and sign the papers.
No hassles and no waiting for the legalized and translated papers to be sent to me.

I am 100% sure i want to have symbolic ceremony and no one will even know the difference. my wedding date will always be the day we got married on the beach with my friends and family…

Best wishes to all and Happy holidays!![/quote]

No one will know you are having a symbolic ceremony at all! That is what we are doing due to immigration. I am immigrating to the US so we can’t be legally married before I immigrate, we have to get married after I immigrate. We are anticipating that I will be moving to the US about 2 months after our symbolic ceremony in the US. No one knows we are doing this besides our parents! It is definitely a lot cheaper and less hassle!

yeah…everyone has their reasons. like i said before, to each their own! my fiance is paying $240 a month right now for health insurance…and if we were married it would be free for both of us because my employer pays it (i’m a nys teacher.) so financially, it makes sense. we are “taking care of the paperwork” (as we have been calling it) next month, and not actually having the ceremony until may. then the at home reception is in july. we’ve been together for seven years, so a full year wedding celebration seems fitting;) our relationship has been a process, and our wedding will be too! noone knows except my sister (the moh) and my parents have an idea, but we havent confirmed anything. maybe it’s just my family, but we tend not to get too focused on formalities–hence the destination wedding:)

Just to add my 2 cents, my wife and I had a symbolic ceremony at the Paradisus in October. We go married 2 days before we left for the DR, and everything was completely hassle free. Our wedding package was free with the accomodation we booked. None of the 22 guests we had knew it was a symbolic ceremony, and still don’t know. Everything was done just like it was legal – judge, decorations, document signing and all the trimmings. It was fabulous !!!

No legal headaches to worry about once we came back home at all. Our anniversary will be the date we got married in the DR.

Any questions ???

Was the ceremony in Spanish still with the translator? That is my only question.

We are doing symbolic mainly because of the cost of the doc translation. I was married before so the divorce decree would have to have been translated as well. In addition to the other docs and the judge’s fees, it’s not worth it to us to have practically the exact same experience for practically no cost.

It was a no-brainer for us.

Yes, the ceremony was in spanish and translated by our
Wedding coordinator. It was great.

also, something to consider: you can have whomever you would like perform the ceremony if it is symbolic. my aunt’s friend is a captain of a boat (so he is technically allowed to perform wedding ceremonies anyway) and he has agreed to come do our symbolic ceremony for us. that way i can write the ceremony however i want and it will have a little bit more meaning because he is a friend of the family.

That is very true, but having someone else perform the ceremony that isn’t the local judge/minister etc might cause the guests in attendance start to wonder why it isn’t the judge – especially if they don’t know it is a symbolic ceremony. Just a thought …

Why do you not want your guests to know that it is a symbolic wedding ceremony? I am sorry but I just don’t understand this.

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