# Who enjoys weddings - reveal....



## truthseeker (1 Sep 2009)

> I will come back to this thread in 3 weeks time with a story for ye, cant tell now, would ruin the secret


 
I made a comment that Id come back and tell ye a secret - well the thread is closed so Ive decided to open a new thread to tell......

I was supposed to be getting married later this year, but due to my own feelings on not enjoying weddings etc.

I ran off and did it abroad a couple of weeks ago. Just meself and himself, no guests, 2 strangers as witnesses.

I can strongly recommend elopement as the way to go!!! No stress, no guests to worry about, no boring bits and just a lovely time the two of us


----------



## Caveat (1 Sep 2009)

Ha Ha! Congratulations - well done!

(Nearly did the same thing ourselves BTW but bowed to external pressures in the end. )


----------



## gipimann (1 Sep 2009)

Congrats truthseeker + Mr truthseeker!

My sister did the same, she & hubby headed for Barbados and got married out there, their 2 witnesses were hotel guests - I found out 1 hour before it all happened!

She did organise an evening "do" in a pub about a month after the event, but it was much more informal than a wedding and much more enjoyable!


----------



## redstar (1 Sep 2009)

Congratulations and best of luck to you both, Truthseeker !!

When myself and Mrs redstar were planning our wedding we decided to have a small wedding, maybe 12 guests. We ended up with 100 !!


----------



## foxylady (1 Sep 2009)

truthseeker said:


> I made a comment that Id come back and tell ye a secret - well the thread is closed so Ive decided to open a new thread to tell......
> 
> I was supposed to be getting married later this year, but due to my own feelings on not enjoying weddings etc.
> 
> ...


 

Congrats . Sounds like a good plan and so much less stressful


----------



## liaconn (1 Sep 2009)

Congratulations. I hope you had a brilliant day (and didn't miss the confetti, best man's speech, car with ribbons on etc )


----------



## Teatime (1 Sep 2009)

Congrats truthseeker !

I think the elopement option is becoming more and more popular. Saves a lot of drama !


----------



## Graham_07 (1 Sep 2009)

Congrats, glad to see elopement is still alive.  My OH's late granny eloped many many moons ago ( think in late 1920's ) , literally down a ladder at the window. Not saying that it was connected but she lived into her 90's .


----------



## MrMan (1 Sep 2009)

Conrats, i wish your OH the best in trying to win any arguments!


----------



## Pseudonym (1 Sep 2009)

mrman said:


> conrats, i wish your oh the best in trying to win any arguments!


  :d


----------



## Ash 22 (1 Sep 2009)

Congrats and glad all went well.


----------



## Kine (1 Sep 2009)

Can someone explain elopment to me? What are the legalities of such from a foreign country? For example...I shoot off to vegas and get married in an elvis chapel, does it have legal standing back here?


----------



## truthseeker (1 Sep 2009)

Thanks all for the congrats.
MrMan - he is well aware by now the dangers of engaging in 'debate' with me 

Kine - we investigated before we went the legalities of marriage in a foreign country. It differs by country, but we wanted somewhere where there were easy residency requirements and paperwork was minimal.

There are a number of places like this actually, we (and our travel agent) fulfilled the legal requirements (providing copies of long form of birth cert and passports etc) in advance, brought the originals with us, and then the visa stamp on the passports fulfilled the residency requirements *in the country we chose there are no residency requirements to marry but we needed to show we were legally in the country*.
We used a minister who was licensed to carry out civil marriages and immediately after the ceremony we filled out the legal paperwork and he provided us with a short temporary marriage certificate and a day or so after the ceremony he registered the marriage in the government offices and got us the official rubber stamped long form or permanent 'Certificate of Marriage'. (he was familiar with doing foreign marriages which made it all a bit easier).

Legalities of such, in Ireland you do not have to register a foreign civil marriage, only an Irish civil marriage. So we are legal - everywhere.

The above is all just in relation to civil marriages - had we just had a religious ceremony we would have been required to have the civil ceremony in Ireland for it to be legal.


----------



## liaconn (1 Sep 2009)

How did you break the news to your family and how was it received?


----------



## Graham_07 (1 Sep 2009)

liaconn said:


> How did you break the news to your family and how was it received?


 

Probably ...." oh thank goodness, now we don't have to worry about Uncle Bert singing the Rose of Mooncoin on the table after 6 pints "


----------



## truthseeker (1 Sep 2009)

liaconn said:


> How did you break the news to your family and how was it received?


 
We phoned home that evening, I dont have any family so I phoned close friends and overwhelmingly the reaction was 'ye pair of feicers!!!' followed by laughs and congratulations.
His mum was a bit taken aback but she was ok after a while - I think she was just shocked!!! The rest of his family were similar to my friends.
We only made a few calls and then let the news travel, we had no mobile phone coverage where we were so it was a good few days until we got all the texts from various people.


----------



## Kine (2 Sep 2009)

truthseeker said:


> Kine - we investigated before we went the legalities of marriage in a foreign country. It differs by country, but we wanted somewhere where there were easy residency requirements and paperwork was minimal.
> 
> There are a number of places like this actually, we (and our travel agent) fulfilled the legal requirements (providing copies of long form of birth cert and passports etc) in advance, brought the originals with us, and then the visa stamp on the passports fulfilled the residency requirements *in the country we chose there are no residency requirements to marry but we needed to show we were legally in the country*.
> We used a minister who was licensed to carry out civil marriages and immediately after the ceremony we filled out the legal paperwork and he provided us with a short temporary marriage certificate and a day or so after the ceremony he registered the marriage in the government offices and got us the official rubber stamped long form or permanent 'Certificate of Marriage'. (he was familiar with doing foreign marriages which made it all a bit easier).
> ...


 
Wow, interesting indeed....an option I have considered but done no research into it. I would love to do this, but convincing the other half would take some work! Then again, after telling her how much a wedding she wants will cost I'm getting closer!


----------



## truthseeker (2 Sep 2009)

Kine said:


> Wow, interesting indeed....an option I have considered but done no research into it. I would love to do this, but convincing the other half would take some work! Then again, after telling her how much a wedding she wants will cost I'm getting closer!


 
Kine - I did quite a bit of research beforehand. Different countries have different requirements. Ideally you need somewhere where the residency requirements are absolutely minimal (ie, no residency or only required to be in the country 24 or 48 hours beforehand) and where no blood tests needed. Its also preferable to use a country where English is widely spoken and allowed on legal documents - saves hassle on translations.

Despite all my own research, when all came to all - the travel agent did the organising. We used Trailfinders (no association with them), and their wedding package was organised by their UK office (the Irish office doesnt do it apparently). The offered us a number of choices, but due to our own research we already had the country chosen so it was just a matter of organising the details. They requested the necessary legal bits beforehand and when we got to the destination the minister came to see us the day before the wedding and sorted out any of the other legal bits (like photocopying the entry visas in our passports).

It was very much 'no mess, no fuss' - In terms of paperwork I only needed to bring my birth cert and passport (and as far as I remember I didnt even need the birth cert as it had been photocopied and sent on prior to arrival).

The minister procured the relevant legal forms for that country and filled them out leaving us just to put down our signatures.

I cannot stress enough how cool it was to run away and just get married on our own - I highly recommend, and nothing stopping you from throwing a party when you get back (we are!).

If you would like any other specific details please feel free to pm me, I am reluctant to name the country I used here as it may identify me to anyone who knows me reading this.


----------



## liaconn (3 Sep 2009)

Just curious, are there many of you out there who would change the type of wedding you had if you could go back in time (and I don't mean changing partner!!).


----------



## Yachtie (3 Sep 2009)

liaconn said:


> Just curious, are there many of you out there who would change the type of wedding you had if you could go back in time (and I don't mean changing partner!!).


 
Yeah, I would chose the one where mother-in-law is not invited! Just as we got married, she came to me and said 'Congratulations X!'. In this case, X is my husband's 1st wife's name! 

Apart from that, I wouldn't change anything as we had a small-ish, no frills wedding that was all about the two of us.


----------



## Mpsox (3 Sep 2009)

liaconn said:


> Just curious, are there many of you out there who would change the type of wedding you had if you could go back in time (and I don't mean changing partner!!).


 
Only thing I wish hadn't happened was my wife's Aunt throwing a hissy fit after the wedding because I did not go out of my way to thank them for their "generous" gift during my speech. Seemingly I made the mistake (as far as she was concerned) of just giving a general thank you and sending out cards later. I wouldn't mind but it was only €150 anyway

Aside from that, absolutely perfect day and 2nd best day of my life, all in Ireland with all the family there


----------



## Graham_07 (3 Sep 2009)

Mpsox said:


> Aside from that, absolutely perfect day and 2nd best day of my life, all in Ireland with all the family there


 

Ok well someone's going to ask so it might as well be me....what was the 1st best day ?


----------



## becky (4 Sep 2009)

Mpsox said:


> Only thing I wish hadn't happened was my wife's Aunt throwing a hissy fit after the wedding because I did not go out of my way to thank them for their "generous" gift during my speech. Seemingly I made the mistake (as far as she was concerned) of just giving a general thank you and sending out cards later. I wouldn't mind but it was only €150 anyway
> Aside from that, absolutely perfect day and 2nd best day of my life, all in Ireland with all the family there


l agree your aunt didn't need a special thank you but do you not think 150 generous?


----------



## MandaC (4 Sep 2009)

Just seeing this now.....that is really great news truthseeker!


----------

