Yes, we got married in Mexico! Wedding in Mexico: our experience

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This post will be of use for you, if you are planning your wedding in Mexico, no matter whether you are marrying a Mexican or a foreigner. How to get married in Mexico, where to get married in Mexico and Mexico City and how does a traditional Mexican wedding look like – all that and more you will find in this post.

Our wedding in Mexico City: organizing everything in less than 2 weeks

We got married on the 29th of December our Mexican wedding took place in Mexico City. We managed to organize a wedding just in less than 2 weeks and managed to get all the documents ready. Let me tell you a bit about our wedding first and then I’ll share with you some general tips for getting married in Mexico, e.g. where, when and how.

Mexican wedding: our story

Our love story began a bit more than 2 years ago, in cold and windy Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, whiskey, and bagpipes. We were both studying for a Master Degree at the University of Edinburgh (different majors, though) and somehow our paths crossed at a friend’s of friend’s B-Day party in some student accommodation on Cowgate. 2 weeks later we were already dating. 6 months after, our challenging 1.5-year long-distance relationship had started.

I wouldn’t lie to you saying that LDR isn’t tough, it is very very tough. But there are also some good things about long-distance relationships, so it’s not only grey, dark and sad. However, it’s always better to be with your other half permanently and not just once a month, so when we got 100% sure we want to spend a life together, we decided to get married. Everything happened so fast: Pepe proposed to me on the 3rd of December and on the 29th of December we celebrated our wedding in Mexico. Some couples plan their weddings for years, but we managed to organize everything in less than a month.

Yes, we got married in Mexico! Wedding in Mexico: our experience!

 

Why getting married in Mexico? Documents to get married in Mexico

Getting married in Mexico was an easy decision. Why? Well, because we already had our upcoming Mexican vacation planned and it was longer than 3 weeks, so it was perfectly possible to have a wedding and a honeymoon during this time.

Another reason to choose Mexico was the fact, that not many documents were needed to get married in Mexico. In Spain, for example, we would have to apply to get married to 2 witnesses 2 months in advance and then either get a permission to get married or get our application declined. In Russia, the whole process is even more annoying and complicated. As for the, the UK, I would have needed to apply for 2 visas and provide tons of papers and certificates to get married in the country.

As for Mexico, the only document I had to provide besides my passport was my Birth Certificate with an apostille and the certified translation of it to Spanish. The rest I had to do inside Mexico, e.g. go to the Russian Embassy, where I would get my documents certified and together with Pepe fill the application to get married. No need to wait for months – we booked an appointment with a judge, who was available (of course for some additional sum of money) and got our certificates 7 days after the wedding. Very quick and painless. Also, we didn’t need any X-rays or blood tests or anything like that. Check the updates on the list of documents required to get married in Mexico here (it’s in Spanish, sorry). There will be a list of documents you need to get married in Mexico later in this post.

Yes, we got married in Mexico! Wedding in Mexico: our experience!

Places to get married in Mexico city

Choosing a best place to get married in Mexico City could be complicated. There are many venues and some are really amazing. We didn’t have to look for a “matrimonio” office – the civil registry office, as we “booked” a judge that would come to marry us in our venue. Our judge spoke a little English, but I speak a bit of Spanish and Pepe is Mexican, so that wasn’t a problem. But generally, in order to get married in Mexico City, you need to understand at least a bit of Spanish.

We managed to book a very nice venue – Hacienda de Tlalpan just one week before our wedding date and our amazing photographer Daniel Monroy– just 6 days before the event. Most of the photos in this post are his courtesy, and in case you liked them – check this Facebook! We also chose the decoration of the room and the playlist ourselves – that was arranged by the Hacienda de Tlalpan. Everything (except for the makeup) went smoothly and we had a great civil ceremony and celebration! So yes, planning a great wedding in just 2 weeks is perfectly possible in Mexico. You can find some wedding service providers and places to get married in Mexico here.

Yes, we got married in Mexico! Wedding in Mexico: our experience!

What does a Mexican wedding look like:

A normal Mexican wedding is usually huge! You will have to invite at least 100-200 people, while the average wedding has around 150-300 people (and there are venues for 500 people and even more guests). We didn’t invite so many people, of course, so we had around 55 guests. And it was considered a small and compact wedding in Mexico! In Russia, that would have been quite a big wedding already (since families are usually way smaller in the big cities). From my side there were only 3 guests, since neither my family, not my friends could fly all the way to Mexico. It was the Christmas break, so the flights were ridiculously expensive! (The average ticket price was about 2000 euros). That’s why we’ve decided to have another ceremony in Russia later this year. Just for my Russian family and friends and for our common friends based in Europe.

Yes, we got married in Mexico! Wedding in Mexico: our experience!

Now let me tell you about the documents you will need to get married in Mexico. Please, note, that they are different if you are marrying a foreigner and just want a nice ceremony at the beach in Cancun. (I was marrying my Mexican boyfriend Pepe – co-founder of this blog).

So, for a wedding in Mexico you’ll need:

– You need a Birth Certificate with an apostille (original plus a copy)
– Translation of the Birth Certificate to Spanish (preferably made by one of the certified translators in Mexico or certified by the Embassy of your country in Mexico or embassy of Mexico in your country)
– Marriage request form (filled by your and your partner)
– Photo IDs of you and your partner (passport)
– Permission from the Immigration office for the foreigner to get married. That was done by our private judge, so we didn’t have to take care of it
– Two witnesses and their IDs

You don’t need blog tests and X-rays, as they were excluded from the requirements some years ago.

For foreigners to get married in Mexico:

However, if you aren’t marrying a Mexican and just want your dream wedding to take place in Mexico, you won’t need this permission from the Immigration Office to get married. Instead, you will need your tourist cards (the ones you get when you cross Mexican Border). Also, you will need two witnesses to be present at your ceremony.

If you want everything to run very smoothly, it makes sense to contact a particular hotel / organisation where you would like to get married. Sone of them even offer wedding packages, so you don’t have to worry about anything. You can check those at Bodas.mx.

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Yes, we got married in Mexico! Wedding in Mexico: our experience!

18 thoughts on “Yes, we got married in Mexico! Wedding in Mexico: our experience”

  1. so cool! sometimes I also think a wedding abroad would be great but then I get worried that no one would be able to come, so I like your solution of having another celebration later. Looks like a beautiful place to tie the knot!

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  2. Such a lovely story and such a beautiful wedding in such a short time! I think that might be the way to do it! Best of luck to both of you!

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  3. I planned my wedding in 6 months because I was inspired by my mother-in-law who planned hers in two! You beat us both!! It looks beautiful and will be a treasured memory forever!

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  4. That is an awesome place to get married! And you are so detailed and efficient! Awesome.. glad you had a great time and that you still had a celebration in Russia is double party time! I didn’t know it’s pretty easy ro get married in Mexico.

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  5. Oh I love this! I never thought about all the things you would need to get married somewhere else! A destination wedding would be so special! Congrats!

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  6. This kind of came up at the perfect time. I am American, my boyfriend is Australian and we live in Germany. After over 2 years of applying for odd visas here and there we’re planning on just having a small quick wedding. Australia is too far, Germany has too much paperwork and the U.S. is on my shit list at the moment haha. This might be perfect for us! Thanks for the advise and your dream day is beautiful!

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  7. Your story is so lovely! I’ve never thought about getting married in Mexico before, but you gave lots of information about it. Congratulation for your wedding 🙂

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  8. Looks like it was a beautiful day! I am definitely saving this for the future, there are some a great tips! I have been to Mexico a couple of times and always love it there.

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  9. What a beautiful story! Your wedding looked lovely and so intimate. Congratulations on your nuptials! Wishing you lifelong happiness!

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  10. Gorgeous bride and gorgeous venue, thanks for sharing your story. Mexico looks like a wonderful destination to choose for a wedding. We recently did a destination one in Tuscany, the paperwork wasn’t fun but wouldn’t trade it for anything. 🙂

    Reply

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