What to do about the wedding?

[BeachMusic 8]

Hey guys,

Just wondering what everybody else does about weddings with the K-1 visa. I know I can go to the US, get court married and apply for AP come back to India and then get married on AP. That is what we had originally planned. But my family is uncomfortable with having the indian wedding months after the court marriage. I'm sure I'm not the only K-1 visa applicant who is having this problem. What did the rest of you do?

I'm considering just having a religious wedding in the US (tri-state area) a few weeks after the court wedding, but I'm completely not sure about how to plan it in a short time (2-3 months) or if it'll be ridiculously expensive. My fiance tells me even a priest there costs a few thousand dollars. That sounds a little ridiculous to me. We'll start exploring and calling places to get estimates. But if anybody can share their experience that'll be great.

[TimeTravel 78]

I'm considering just having a religious wedding in the US (tri-state area) a few weeks after the court wedding, but I'm completely not sure about how to plan it in a short time (2-3 months) or if it'll be ridiculously expensive. My fiance tells me even a priest there costs a few thousand dollars. That sounds a little ridiculous to me. We'll start exploring and calling places to get estimates. But if anybody can share their experience that'll be great.

2-3 months is not a short time-frame. But how big wedding are you guys planning? how many guest are you expecting? Are you guys expecting alot of guest from India?

Priest cost a few thousand dollars???? Seems like you guys are looking for wrong priest. Temple/Church wedding must be inexpensive. Priest should be free as he shouldnt be concerned for money. Church/Temple runs by donation, and whoever takes priest position, thats mean he should be renounced, maya-free.

[AKSinghSingh79 143]

Your problem seems to be you are trying to please everyone. It is not possible to please everyone in your current situation. Do what's best for you and according to the terms of your K-1 visa. Many if not most couples have a legal civil ceremony first then have their religious wedding/reception later.

Is there a reason why you didn't do the CR-1? If your plan was to have a religious wedding in India the whole time it seems that this route would have made more sense. I can understand if your plans changed later.

My husband and I had a very brief Hindu ceremony in May 2012 then we had the huge wedding reception this past January 2013. His family was not happy at first with our plans but they learned to deal with it and are happy now.

[BeachMusic 8]

2-3 months is not a short time-frame. But how big wedding are you guys planning? how many guest are you expecting? Are you guys expecting alot of guest from India?

Priest cost a few thousand dollars???? Seems like you guys are looking for wrong priest. Temple/Church wedding must be inexpensive. Priest should be free as he shouldnt be concerned for money. Church/Temple runs by donation, and whoever takes priest position, thats mean he should be renounced, maya-free.

I don't think it can be anything shorter than 2-3 months, it'll require some amount of planning atleast I believe. We're mostly just expecting guests from US itself if the wedding is in the US around 150 people.

Yea, the priest thing was a little ridiculous. My fiance doesn't really know much about wedding-y stuff. Maybe its a norm to give that much donation to temples for a marriage?

Your problem seems to be you are trying to please everyone. It is not possible to please everyone in your current situation. Do what's best for you and according to the terms of your K-1 visa. Many if not most couples have a legal civil ceremony first then have their religious wedding/reception later.

Is there a reason why you didn't do the CR-1? If your plan was to have a religious wedding in India the whole time it seems that this route would have made more sense. I can understand if your plans changed later.

My husband and I had a very brief Hindu ceremony in May 2012 then we had the huge wedding reception this past January 2013. His family was not happy at first with our plans but they learned to deal with it and are happy now.

Well it was never really a big issue at the time that we got engaged, doing the whole court wedding first then the religious wedding around the holidays etc. But the family just thinks there will be no enthusiasm if we have the indian wedding 6-7 months later, so they now want the wedding in the US around 2 months after I go. Which is fine but its unexpected for me and I don't know how I'll plan it that quick or if its even possible. I spent a lot of weekends in India looking at places here itself thinking the wedding will be here. And I came up with a good streamlined plan for accommodations, venues, caterers, etc. which suited both our families (my fiance and I have different wedding rituals) and was under-budget yet promised to be pleasant and fun. Now to do that again in the US where I dont know how to drive, don't know the places as well, is whats driving me nuts. So I'm just wondering if someone has experience with this. Things like, the priest, what kind of venues should I be looking for, not all of them seem indian-wedding friendly. Anyways it was a long shot posting here.

[TimeTravel 78]

Yea, the priest thing was a little ridiculous. My fiance doesn't really know much about wedding-y stuff. Maybe its a norm to give that much donation to temples for a marriage?

Donation can be anything ( depend up to whatever you guys can afford ). Find some other honest priest who is willing to do your wedding in your budget line.