For those who got married already.. I need your advice

[danver 15]

Thanks for the input danver. My parents would love to see me to, but they decided to not go the wedding in the US (Financial issue and practicality concern), and I completely understand that.

My concern is, if we're gonna have a 'real wedding' in the US without the presence of the parents aw, if there someone did proxy them?

Anyways, the dates are still far, maybe I will figure something out. But I will appreciate if anyone would share their experience like this. :-D

Like i said it depends on ur finances. If u can afford to do a big engrande wedding why not? We got married in a wedding chapel with a few of our closest friends. i was wearing my dream wedding gown especially made to order that i myself brought with me from the PI.

Wedding is not what matters,,big or small it depends on u two. We been married almost 6 yrs and happilly married with our 3 kids.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

1359082506[/url]' post='5940726']

Just wondering how did most of you guys got married after your POE to US? Was is it a simple one (civil) or a grand wedding? I just need some input as my fiance's family wished a "real wedding" and somehow, already started planning even though the the K1 hasn't been approved yet.

Since they wanted a "real wedding" of course my parents has to be in the US as well to take part in it, but it's not really practical for us because the flight ticket costs too much. But his family is very traditional want it for their son.

So for those got married as "real wedding" how do you guys go about it? Was one or two of your family members able to fly to US to attend it? If not, how did you go about?

Thank so much in advance!

We had a small simple wedding in the u.s. then went back to the PI later to have a nice. Service for the family. I

[haggarda.versoza 3]

Luckily, there is a wedding chapel where we live in the Minnesota so we could set up a real wedding on short notice. We had about 40 people, mostly my friends and family, but a few Filipina that wife met once she got here, and made a video tape of the wedding for her family back home. Her family's internet connection is so poor, skyping doesn't normally work so well and takes a lot of restarting, plus there was no internet at the chapel, so we could not include them that way. We do plan to have our Catholic wedding in the Philippines with her family. We were married by a minister, but her family really wants to see us married in the Catholic church, so we're saving that occasion to spend with them when we return to visit the Philippines. It will probably be close to the same size, as she doesn't have a large family that lives close.

We are either going to have a small ceremony at the courhouse or on the beach. My friend married at the courthouse chapel and siad it was nice. In a year to year and half we will return to Philippines to have a ceremony and of course reception with her family and close friends. If you want your family involved most places have wifi here. Possibly Skype them in to watch and listen. Not the same but it is at least close...

What a great post!

We have decided to have a civil marriage just to satisfy the 90 day rule. But, I promised my love a real wedding with the white gown, flowers, family etc very soon after. She does have a 1st cousin her in US. I really like the ideas that have been posted here with Skype but I think I need to ask my girl if she wants her Father to attend. He has not been in her life much but her Momma died in 2008 so I think I should try and offer to get him here for our ceremony. Maybe as he is older now, he might see the value in life to attend such a glorious event. Of course I can provide for all to attend. My Girl is the oldest of 8 children, so I think she may want one of her brothers to attend as that is the family she stays in touch with. It may be hard to get a visa but id he is willing to attend than I'm willing to get him here for the wedding.

Before I brought my wife here, her family was also concerned about the wedding. The compromise we came up with is that we will have the Non-Church Wedding in the US for those here in America and the Church Wedding in Philippines sometime in the future for the rest of the family that would be unable to attend.

We had a cute Chapel Wedding in Las Vegas which gave our friends and family to have a reason to have minivacation of their own. With less than 30 people the overall cost about $1000 for Ceremony/Reception Dinner. The Wedding Chapel recorded the wedding an it was up for viewing after about 15 minutes after the ceremony.

The cost of throwing a Grand Wedding in PI will be a fraction of the cost of normal wedding here, so my wife and I decided to keep it simple here and spend the real money in PI. considering the US dollar is worth 4-5x as much in the PI a wedding that costs 10K over there would be equivalent to $50-60k here.

For us it was a no-brainer since we get to have 2 weddings 1 for friends and family in US with another for friends and family in PI. We get to go to Vegas and PI(both fun places with good food and many things to keep a couple busy). In the long run the savings in regards to time and money is quite substantial.

Wedding Chapel in vegas. She got to fly and see more of America. We are doing a ceromony when we get back to Phils. Quick cheap easy to get license. Very nice and affordable. Plus no headaches of family and friends to plan a big wedding!

Thank you sooo much for all of your input. I realized now that there are a lot of you experienced a wedding without family on their side and now, I don't feel lonely anymore. This forum is wonderful making people connect to each other and share their experiences.

To give you a brief background of my case: My fiance's mom (USC) was the one who wanted a grand wedding with 150 guests!! (I was like OMG who are they? entire neighborhood? -- at the back of my mind) I expressed my concern to my fiance and told him to cut down the guests into 40 to 50 to cut down the expenses as well since none of my family will be there and then just have a simple wedding.

However, he told me that his family would not agree to it. And when I mentioned about the cut down of guests to his mom, she turned hysterical HAHA. With those words coming from my fiance himself and the act his mom showed, I felt like the wedding is more for his family and not for me LOL. To be honest, I was crying every night imagining this 'grand wedding' without my parents (father) who will take me to the altar (Yes, a church wedding). But later on, I accepted that fact. I love him and he loves his family so much, and I wanted him to be happy. ;-)

Again thank you so much for sharing your experience! It means a lot to me.

[lovelovelove13 9]

^^ Thanks a lot for that! It enlightened me somehow. ;-)

^^ Thanks a lot for sharing the scenario of your wedding. I really appreciate it. I can now imagine how it goes for us, an alien fiance who cannot bring family to US. I now don't feel alone.

[Hank_ 9,174]

Watch out for controlling mother-in-laws............ they can come to haunt a relationship later.

[haggarda.versoza 3]

Watch out for controlling mother-in-laws............ they can come to haunt a relationship later.

HAHAHA!! That idea already came to my mind!

[actob99 156]

We did Skype at our wedding, setup a conference call so all the family and friends all over the world could "attend".

Not sure if we will do a renewal of vows in the Phils later, but for sure there will be a party!

That is a great idea, didn't think of that.