Puerto Vallarta

sparklynn

Has anyone on here gotten married in Puerto Vallarta? We are looking at resorts for an October 2019 wedding and want to see if anyone has experiences (good or bad) that they can share.

(And yes, we know the legal marriage requirements, we have spoken with family and friends about our plans, and are planning to "properly" host our guests and understand there will be some people who are not able to attend)

MobKaz

sparklynn said:

Has anyone on here gotten married in Puerto Vallarta? We are looking at resorts for an October 2019 wedding and want to see if anyone has experiences (good or bad) that they can share.

(And yes, we know the legal marriage requirements, we have spoken with family and friends about our plans, and are planning to "properly" host our guests and understand there will be some people who are not able to attend)

Are you already married?

sparklynn

No, we aren't married yet. we are planning our wedding right now

MobKaz

sparklynn said:

No, we aren't married yet. we are planning our wedding right now

Your "disclaimer" makes me think that this trip will not be your one and only legal ceremony. 

ahoywedding

My sister had a DW in Mexico (Cancun area), so I can't recommend resorts or vendors in Puerto Vallarta. She spent a lot of time looking into resorts to make sure they could accommodate everything.

What she liked was: the resort had decorations they could use and someone from the resort set everything up, they also provided a day of coordinator, there were several locations they could use on-site in case of rain or inclement weather, the resort offered a private restaurant for the reception after, they were able to choose from several time options, I think they got some special bonuses for getting married there.

What didn't work well: the resort couldn't guarantee everyone attending the wedding would have rooms near each other (there weren't a lot of guests, and the resort was quite large so getting together was hard), it was fairly costly for guests, the resort was set away from the actual city so we pretty much had to spend our time there, there were a couple weddings on the beach at the same time, they had legally gotten married prior to going and we witnessed (and stood up in) a pretend ceremony. 

Consider the logistics of how things would work for your guests. My sister booked through a travel agent and she was able to include transportation to & from the airport for guests in the cost. My sister was also going to include (and pay for) a snorkel trip for everyone who was interested, but the weather didn't want to cooperate so we didn't go. Something like that would be nice to offer to your guests. Their wedding was at about 10 am, which ended up being perfect. It wasn't too hot, and we could all spend the day together afterwards.

About your disclaimer: Your wording doesn't sound great, it comes off pretty snarky. Make sure this will be your one and only legal ceremony (yes, legal weddings in Mexico are a bit of a PITA). Properly hosting shouldn't be in quotes; that makes it seem as though you're not actually properly hosting. I would suggest making sure any VIPs (parents, siblings, very best friends) that you really want to attend are cool with your plan. One of my sisters is in grad school (read: broke AF) and really struggled with the cost of the wedding. She went because it was her sister, but it was a big hardship for her & kind of left a bad taste. We were all pretty upset about the fact that their legal wedding took place before the Mexico trip (the whole story is in my post history).

sparklynn

Our legal wedding will be the ceremony in mexico, I only included the disclaimer because I have so many negative comments about Mexico weddings and properly hosting guests for a destination those things on here.

We are having a very small wedding, and our VIPs are our parents and our kids who will all be there. we will be going early and have the wedding towards the end of the trip so there is more than enough time to meet the legal requirements.

MobKaz

sparklynn said:

Our legal wedding will be the ceremony in mexico, I only included the disclaimer because I have so many negative comments about Mexico weddings and properly hosting guests for a destination those things on here.

We are having a very small wedding, and our VIPs are our parents and our kids who will all be there. we will be going early and have the wedding towards the end of the trip so there is more than enough time to meet the legal requirements.

I thought it was urban legend!  Congratulations!  With all your “quotes” and disclaimers, and all the brides that try to justify their DW “wedding”, your post inferred the same.  It is refreshing to read your post.

The only negative comments I have read about weddings in Mexico typically are in reference to “weddings” in Mexico.  Hosting an event, whether at home or destination, remains the same.  

ernursej

sparklynn said:

Our legal wedding will be the ceremony in mexico, I only included the disclaimer because I have so many negative comments about Mexico weddings and properly hosting guests for a destination those things on here.

We are having a very small wedding, and our VIPs are our parents and our kids who will all be there. we will be going early and have the wedding towards the end of the trip so there is more than enough time to meet the legal requirements.

That is excellent to read. I hope you have a lovely wedding!!

sparklynn

The marriage requirements are not that bad from what I have researched:

The following requirements are for legal marriages only. 

• Valid passports
• Blood Tests: The blood tests can be done at the resort. Please work with your wedding coordinator to arrange.
  • Cost of blood test $200 USD per couple
• Marriage Application Form: Your wedding coordinator will send you this form to complete 15 days prior to the wedding.
• Witnesses: You will need to have 4 witnesses present at the legal ceremony, and they must have valid a passport and to have arrived at least 3 business days prior to the wedding.

We will have no issues meeting those requirements, but we are still trying to decide on a venue...so any advice on locations or good/bad experiences with resorts are what we are looking for. Thx

ahoywedding

sparklynn said:

The marriage requirements are not that bad from what I have researched:

The following requirements are for legal marriages only. 

• Valid passports
• Blood Tests: The blood tests can be done at the resort. Please work with your wedding coordinator to arrange.
  • Cost of blood test $200 USD per couple
• Marriage Application Form: Your wedding coordinator will send you this form to complete 15 days prior to the wedding.
• Witnesses: You will need to have 4 witnesses present at the legal ceremony, and they must have valid a passport and to have arrived at least 3 business days prior to the wedding.

We will have no issues meeting those requirements, but we are still trying to decide on a venue...so any advice on locations or good/bad experiences with resorts are what we are looking for. Thx

There are additional costs in getting your wedding recognized by your home state (assuming you're in the US). This is where my sister decided she would rather have the legal ceremony at home. There was a cost to get the documents translated from Spanish to English, and I think that cost may vary by state. For her, it was going to be about $1,000. I would check with your state or county to see what their requirements are. 

I wrote a long post with things to look for in your venues. If you want specific venue names, you may want to work with a travel agent that specializes in Puerto Vallarta or look for a FB group for Puerto Vallarta brides.