Planning · · 4 min read
Legal or symbolic? Getting married in Mexico
What it actually takes to legally marry in Mexico as a U.S. couple, why most of our couples don't, and how a symbolic ceremony works.
Grace Whitfield · Senior Planner
Every couple asks. Here is the straightforward answer.
The legal route
A civil marriage in Mexico is fully recognised in the United States. Getting one requires, depending on the state:
- Passports and tourist permits for both of you
- Birth certificates, apostilled and translated by an authorised translator
- Blood tests taken in Mexico within a set number of days before the ceremony
- Four witnesses with identification
- A judge from the civil registry, scheduled and paid in advance
- Divorce or death certificates if applicable, also apostilled and translated
Rules differ between Quintana Roo, Baja California Sur, Guanajuato and Oaxaca, and can change without much notice. It is entirely doable. It is also two or three extra days of bureaucracy during a week you’d rather be with your guests.
The symbolic route
Sign the paperwork at your local courthouse before you travel (or after you get home), and hold a ceremony in Mexico led by an officiant of your choice. Your guests see a wedding. You get to write the ceremony however you like, without a judge reading the state’s required text in Spanish. Roughly nine in ten of our couples take this path.
Religious ceremonies
A Catholic church wedding in Mexico requires months of parish paperwork and a pre-marriage course, and the church will want the civil marriage done first. Hindu, Jewish and other religious ceremonies have no state involvement and can be held anywhere; we’ve built mandaps in the jungle and chuppahs on Cabo’s cliffs.
What we recommend
Ask yourselves whether the legal act itself matters to you as part of the destination. If it does, we’ll help you do it properly. If the ceremony and the week are what matter, sign at home and spend those two days at the cenote.
