Getting Married Before The Wedding (Marrying A Foreign National)

MadeiraD

My fiance and I are basically planning to get legally marrried by a justice of the peace so that we can cohabitate and plan the wedding together.  We're planning our wedding for sometime late in 2013/early 2014 but we'll likely actually be married at Christmas of this year.  He's from New Zealand and I'm from the USA.  Does anyone else have experience with doing this?

Julyet06

With a destination wedding some locations have stricter laws you are required to follow/fulfill in order to have a marriage that is legally recognized world wide therefore many brides get legally married at the courts in their home town a few weeks to a month prior to having a symbolic wedding at their DW location in order to avoid excessive paperwork/costs.