Courthouse wedding

[Anna C. 4]

We married in a Lutheran church, but the priest was Catholic. And we only had to pay him. He made a special price. The church understood our situation and said: oh we want to help wherever we can, and so we ended up paying less than 200 for everything (incl. tuxedo for Paul and my bouquet). Okay I bought a dress but it was 200 in a cool store in NY which sells last season's dresses (who sees that?!??!?!).

So if you want to, scout the area for a priest and then you can re-marry with all the church's blessings. They are not that uptight like in Europe where you have to attend courses and stuff. They didn't even want to see a baptism certificate, our word to be Catholic was good enough!

Still we plan our German wedding on a castle next year for my family. But you just have to have good negotation skills and you won't exeed your budget. I just negotiated them down to 40 Euros for each guest - cake in the afternoon and 4 course dinner in the evening - good deal.

So my tip is still to google all wedding officiants, they usually want to have 100 to 200 dollars for their service and they come into your apartment if you want to!!!!!

Good luck and throw off board the guilty conscience - it will just make you feel bad!

Lg Anna

[Leasel7 0]

We had a courthouse wedding three days after my fiance entered the US with the K1 visa. We wanted to get married quickly and with minimal expense, and this arrangement fit the bill perfectly. I did wear a long wedding dress (borrowed from a friend) and carried a bouquet; my husband wore a new suit (our biggest wedding expense). I had my family and closest friends there for the ceremony; all I had to do was notify the Clerk of Court's office that we would have a largish group there for the ceremony, and he arranged for us to use a room with chairs set up. Afterwards we had a reception at my brother's house. We were very pleased with the way it all turned out. At the time I had enough stress in my life getting my fiance through his interview (he had to travel to another country for it) and then arranging for his travel to the US once he got the visa, so it was such a blessing to have a quick, low maintenance wedding with minimal planning that still turned out very nicely.

[Cristy 4]

yep we did. We dressed nice, not in wedding garb, but there was a full wedding party there.

It was 68.50 for the license and 50.00 for the ceremony.

[irishgirl73 0]

Colleen, dont feel guilty not one bit. We did the court house wedding and are planning on having our marriage blessed in the church when Niall comes home. We dressed nice but not overly dressed and then went to dinner. I looked at it this way, I still took my vows in front of GOD and he knows we meant them!

Do what feels right for you!

I guess it just feels so strange now that is happening. I am getting married..............it is not all what I thought it would be(then again-who knew the government would play such a major role in my wedding).

When the time is right-we will have the sort of party that we really want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Leasel7 0]

One more comment-everyone is talking about money they saved. Don't let that fool you into thinking that a courthouse wedding is free.

Ours was $50 + parking. I'm not including the price of a flight to Vegas since we'd have gone anyway.

That's nice, but everyone gets married different places. And depending on where that place is, the price can be considerably higher...

Or lower. Depending on location.

Bottom line, folks... do your research. Assume nothing.

Exactly. Ours cost $15, but they forgot to charge me, so essentially it was free.

[heishe 2]

$300 sounds very reasonable compared to the cost of a church wedding.

It does doesn't it?? But really, when you're broke to the point of limiting your food intake, it's a lot of money!

Oh, I know! Reasonable compared to a giant church wedding, but still a lot! I was so poor last month I couldn't file my petition till my fiance sent me the $170 for the application.

But now we both have jobs and it looks like we have plenty of months to save up money for our wedding, so I'm not worried about affording the wedding paperwork. There's no way we'd be able to afford anything much more elaborate than that, though (not that we'd want a big wedding anyway); we need that money for his health insurance and groceries while he can't work and important stuff like that.

[Cristy 4]

Colleen, dont feel guilty not one bit. We did the court house wedding and are planning on having our marriage blessed in the church when Niall comes home. We dressed nice but not overly dressed and then went to dinner. I looked at it this way, I still took my vows in front of GOD and he knows we meant them!

Do what feels right for you!

I guess it just feels so strange now that is happening. I am getting married..............it is not all what I thought it would be(then again-who knew the government would play such a major role in my wedding).

When the time is right-we will have the sort of party that we really want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was my feeling...it was like...wait a minute this is the day I have dreamed of.....and it is not going to be anything I dreamed of! But those #$#% at USCIS took all our money so we had to do it small.

[Karen_L 1]

Ok I am starting to feel guilty that I am not going to have a big, expensive wedding for at least another year.

Please tell me that I am not the only one who is doing this(please). I am really feeling guilty. Damn Irish-Catholic guilt If you did do this-did you get really dressed-up?

Don't feel bad about it. My fiance' and I are getting married in Bronx County Courthouse this Friday and I'm pretty sure the atmosphere there will be... kind of gross lol, but I bought a dress (not a wedding dress, but a formal dress). Our family/religious/circus/church/mosque/wedding dress wedding won't be for another year or so as well.

PS: I have the Italian-Catholic guilt lol -- it's less powerful than the Irish-Catholic guilt, but heady nonetheless

Edited to add: Getting married in New York City costs $60 -- $35 for the marriage license and $25 for the ceremony.

Edited August 23, 2006 by Karen_L

[Traviesa 0]

$300 sounds very reasonable compared to the cost of a church wedding.

It does doesn't it?? But really, when you're broke to the point of limiting your food intake, it's a lot of money!

Oh, I know! Reasonable compared to a giant church wedding, but still a lot! I was so poor last month I couldn't file my petition till my fiance sent me the $170 for the application.

But now we both have jobs and it looks like we have plenty of months to save up money for our wedding, so I'm not worried about affording the wedding paperwork. There's no way we'd be able to afford anything much more elaborate than that, though (not that we'd want a big wedding anyway); we need that money for his health insurance and groceries while he can't work and important stuff like that.

The only reason we're getting our big wedding is because my parents are paying for it (they follow that tradition that says the bride's family pays for the wedding). Unfortunately, it will still come at a huge cost to us as a couple, since Javier will be needing to pay the way for his whole family to come up north for the wedding and stay several nights there. That all comes out of our savings, which will be completely gone after the wedding. He doesn't make enough money to save anything and my monthly bills are a higher amount than my salary, so we're not exactly sure we'll be having a honeymoon. But we've gotten used to disappointments. It's like the theme of our lives.

[Garfield fan 0]

We did a private wedding in Vancouver, only the two of us, nothing fancy. Hubby even only wore jeans !! LOL ... My brother-in-law just had his courthouse wedding with his Vietnamese fiancee, very simple one, noone was really dressy. So don't feel bad, it's normal... I prefer to save the money for our house or vacation...

Sorry to hijack this but I am OBSESSED with Garfield!!!!

me too !! can't you tell ??

[Traviesa 0]

We did a private wedding in Vancouver, only the two of us, nothing fancy. Hubby even only wore jeans !! LOL ... My brother-in-law just had his courthouse wedding with his Vietnamese fiancee, very simple one, noone was really dressy. So don't feel bad, it's normal... I prefer to save the money for our house or vacation...

Sorry to hijack this but I am OBSESSED with Garfield!!!!

me too !! can't you tell ??

Javier can't stand Garfield-I think he's jealous! Every night I sleep with a stuffed Garfield, we saw Garfield 2 down in Mexico (it was so funny in Spanish-can't wait to see it in English)! And when we were at the Burger King, I made him ask them to give me one of the Happy Meal boxes because it had Garfield on it but they messed up and gave me an actual Happy Meal which included a toy-Garfield bouncing back and forth on the bed in the palace!

Oh yeah, and my wedding card from Javier had Garfield on it with a bunch of flowers!!!

[heishe 2]

$300 sounds very reasonable compared to the cost of a church wedding.

It does doesn't it?? But really, when you're broke to the point of limiting your food intake, it's a lot of money!

Oh, I know! Reasonable compared to a giant church wedding, but still a lot! I was so poor last month I couldn't file my petition till my fiance sent me the $170 for the application.

But now we both have jobs and it looks like we have plenty of months to save up money for our wedding, so I'm not worried about affording the wedding paperwork. There's no way we'd be able to afford anything much more elaborate than that, though (not that we'd want a big wedding anyway); we need that money for his health insurance and groceries while he can't work and important stuff like that.

The only reason we're getting our big wedding is because my parents are paying for it (they follow that tradition that says the bride's family pays for the wedding). Unfortunately, it will still come at a huge cost to us as a couple, since Javier will be needing to pay the way for his whole family to come up north for the wedding and stay several nights there. That all comes out of our savings, which will be completely gone after the wedding. He doesn't make enough money to save anything and my monthly bills are a higher amount than my salary, so we're not exactly sure we'll be having a honeymoon. But we've gotten used to disappointments. It's like the theme of our lives.

Ahh, I'm glad we don't have to go through that. I hope your money situation improves. At least you're together, eh?

[Traviesa 0]

At least you're together, eh?

unfortunately, no...we won't be together until 2008...

[Jonesie 1]

We're not Catholic, but we did get married in courthouse (on a cold, rainy day - February 17). Lots of memories behind the fiascos we had to deal with just to get there, but we wouldn't change a thing .

Planning to renew our vows in Jamaica around 2008...both of our extended families will meet for the first time and we can all paw-tay

[Marilyn. 340]

We got married by a marriage commisioner in Canada in a little chapel at a Bed And Breakfest that was special to my hubby and I... ... I loved our wedding, it was small and intimate, just the way I had always wanted my wedding to be ... We have no intentions of ever having a big fancy wedding

Our total wedding cost about 1000 bucks.... that included a few nights at the Bed and Breakfest...