More than one wedding

[yachachiq12 43]

I think a lot of us have had multiple wedding celebrations for various reasons, whether they be practical or spiritual and cultural reasons. A bi-national marriage can sometimes necessitate this, especially when factoring in family desires and travel needs.

Did you have a series of wedding celebrations across continents? Did you manage to get away with just one small vow ceremony in front of a civil official? Did your parents go for broke trying to do multiple parties? I find the wedding industry and the requirements for marrying in various parts of the world to be fascinating. And I think that the way a globalized world has made it possible for a small-town southern American girl to meet and marry a big city Peruvian guy is equally wild.

Once you get past the whirlwind of celebrations, how do you and your spouse recognize the multiple wedding celebrations? Do you just celebrate one? Does one get more weight than another? How do you navigate this together?

We initially had a tiny civil wedding in a very small highland Peruvian town that neither of us are from. We later had a bigger religious wedding in Lima, but few US friends and family made it. The US parents wanted two subsequent weddings in the US, but we avoided that. As it is, we can't decide which anniversary to celebrate and people always ask which is the important one. We don't know how to choose, so we just do it twice every year! Each day has a different meaning.

[El Cachalote 12]

We had just a simple civil ceremony...but it was beautiful! My wife's parents were there from Loreto. There was a photographer, the mayor of Brena, and friends of the family.

We have many photos and videos of our ceremony. My wife has her hand made, one of a kind wedding dress.

We decided on this because my parents are with God, my family could not visit due to the busy lives and we wanted to marry.

In the future, if we decide to...we may do a catholic wedding. But everythings going so good...I do not know what will happen.

We are married in the law and in the eyes of God I think!

[Ashlee and Bjørn 6]

What we are planning on doing is having a small civil wedding when he gets here, probably with just my parents present.

His family is all starting to save and get ready to come out here next summer, and that is when we will have an actual big ceremony with both of our families.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Celebrate them both. Not sure why but may have to do with the first civil wedding was when we were able to have sex. The second big church wedding was when she was no longer living in sin. Guess they were both important.

[USArmyWifey 2]

We never intended to marry when we did, my husband came home from work one day while i was visiting him and asked me if i wanted to get married at the weekend, i naturaly thought he was joking and agreed. It turns out he wasnt joking and we actuly drove to Texas that weekend and got married in an adorable little court house in Jasper. The only people that attended our courthouse wedding were my husbands sgt and his buddy from afghanistan and their wives so once i returned home i began planning a huge day for our renewal of vows ceremony (which my family class as my "English Wedding"). Due to the nature of my husbands work and the situation we were in i dont think i would change the experience for the world! We are due to celebrate our wedding anniversary in 9 days

[yachachiq12 43]

Yes, I agree that the tiny wedding without family and with no bells and whistles is somehow more special!

I love hearing all the stories!

[Kevin&Leilei 1]

We had a wedding celebration in China, which is basically just a big reception in a rented restaurant, with my wife's family and friends. It wasn't a legal wedding, as we went the K-1 route and had to marry in the US, but her family considered us married at that point.

In the US we had a private ceremony in a hot air balloon, which was our legal wedding, and is the date we celebrate our anniversary. About a week later we had a separate reception for my family and friends.

[USArmyWifey 2]

We had a wedding celebration in China, which is basically just a big reception in a rented restaurant, with my wife's family and friends. It wasn't a legal wedding, as we went the K-1 route and had to marry in the US, but her family considered us married at that point.

In the US we had a private ceremony in a hot air balloon, which was our legal wedding, and is the date we celebrate our anniversary. About a week later we had a separate reception for my family and friends.

A hot air balloon? Wow! That is such an amazing idea! It must of been so romantic!

[yachachiq12 43]

Something we realized today is that we don't need to celebrate Valentine's Day since we already have two days each year devoted to celebrating love. I guess another benefit of the two-anniversary problem is being able to avoid the heavy dinner crowds on the 14th and save your flower money!

[BenAna 0]

My husband and I had our civil wedding in February 2010 and our church wedding July 2011.

February is also when we first met online and there is Valentine's Day. So that's A LOT of presents for only one month hahah

So we agreed we will have our church wedding as our official anniversary. This year was our 1st anniversary and we spent the whole weekend celebrating

[Mr. Borkström 63]

We got married in Sweden on June 30 last summer, civil ceremony at city hall in my hometown. We plan on having a similar renewal-of-vows type ceremony in the US for my (USC) wife's family and friends next summer, on the same date (June 30).

[travelfairy 22]

We had a civil ceremony with 2 lovely neighbours in summer, and are full steam ahead organizing weddings next year in 2 countries. Each family thinks it's the real wedding. Fortunately for one of them it's exactly a year to the day from our wedding this year, so for our one year anniversary, we get to get married all over again!! We think this is great and are having a wonderful time.

[FlipgalRN 19]

We had our civil marriage June 25 and did our church wedding 2 years later on the same date. It made it easier for remembering the date of our anniversary lol

[Rob & Rachel 24]

No wedding yet, but We're planning on two. One in China and one in the US. I'm looking forward to it, they will have completely different feels to them, and even though the China wedding will be more western style, I've found there are a lot of differences to a traditional western wedding.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

We recognize the civil wedding in December mostly. Then a few years later we had the religious ceremony in Egypt and that's also a really special anniversary for us. I'd still like to have a US wedding and we're talking about doing one for our 10th wedding anniversary in a couple of years.