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Boda del Civil

haydee99haydee99
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in Latino Weddings
Do you know if they do these here in the US?  In Mexico la boda del civil is usually the day before and it's a nice event.  You have witnesses and you sign your marriage certificates.  I've never heard of anything like that here.  My mom was asking me about it but I told her that here all you do is go to the courthouse and go to the window and pay your fee and you get your paper.  Is it possible to have a boda del civil here?
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Re: Boda del Civil

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    LalanavLalanav
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Absolutely!  You can go have a courthouse wedding in which you're married by the justice of the peace assigned to do marriages.  It's not anything huge; you go in, the JP says a few words, you have witnesses, you say your vows, and you sign your marriage certificate, and voila, you're married!  But then you can't sign the certificate with the priest/officiant; anything after that would be purely ceremonial.  What you're describing in your post is just getting marriage license; you're not married until everything's signed and you take your vows.
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    lysandramarielysandramarie
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    edited December 2011
    Well some people do a signing ceremony of either a Quaker or Jewish marriage certificate.  I think it's usually the same day as the wedding though, just a separate part from the spoken vows.
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    martha783martha783 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    The difference is that in the US, the officiator is usually someone with legal authority to do the CIVIL part of the wedding as well. However, in Latin America, religious officials cannot perform civil weddings. Since it is not a really quick process to just "file the paper" like we do in the US once the officiator has you both sign, there has developed the custom of doing a separate "event" a few days before the church wedding. They don't GIVE you the paper in most Latin American countries, you have to be physically in the office to me registered in large paper books to be legally married. I guess if you WANTED a separate event in the US, there is no reason why you can't, but we don't have the same necessity.
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