How quickly did you marry?

[Swissmiss82 1,620]

we are also planning to do a wedding for 2 as soon as i get there or in the first 10 days... just to start the other process immediately.

our proper wedding with family and friends is planned for october. 

we have not officially booked the location yet, but will do soon... 

 

we are also not sure which date we will count to celebrate anniversaries haha the bigger wedding is between our birthdays (1 week apart) so it'd be nice to always remember (for him hahaha) hihi

[usmsbow 802]

3 hours ago, Paul & Mallory said:

This is a personal question, so I certainly understand if you care not to respond - do you guys consider your wedding day as your "anniversary", or the courthouse date?

 

We are doing the same and wondering how big of a deal we should make the courthouse date, or if we should focus that on the wedding day we have later.

 

I realize this question wasn't directed towards me, but just thought I'd give my own experience: we use our wedding (ceremony) day as our anniversary, not our courthouse date, which was 1 month after my now-wife arrived.

 

OP- some court houses/city halls book up early. For instance San Francisco City Hall wedding slots fill quickly, and you have to book a couple months in advance (or at least that was the case a couple years ago). We got married in DC (where we lived at the time), and while it was pretty easy to set up a time, if we wanted a Friday slot, we would have been out of luck since the first available Friday was after my fiancee's k-1 expired. Kinda crazy. 

 

 

[doggieandsam 765]

4 hours ago, Keenen and Nidia said:

 

How quickly after your fiancé(e) arrived in the USA did you marry? 

 

Curious to hear couples experiences of their preparations before their wedding and how living arrangements were done in convenience, be it separate or not,  and how it all worked out to the wedding day.

 

Any factors dictated the time to marry from plans made to plans actually being executed? Was it relatively easy or did anything come up unexpectedly in plans?

 

Looking back at your experiences, would you have done it the same way, or done it differently in the time you decided to marry? 

 

Thank you so much for any insights for a couple going through the K-1 visa process to marry. 

 

 

 

 

we got married after 2 weeks of my arrival in the USA. we just had a civil ceremony, officiated by a lawyer and we just had my husbands parents, one of his closest friend as best man and one of my closest childhood friend as maid of honor.

 

we had to marry in that time frame, because my husband's parents are retired and live aboard during the colder months here. they were already scheduled to leave the US even before i got my K1 visa, so we had to fit the wedding date into their schedule. getting the license and booking the officiant was pretty quick and straightforward and we had no issues at all.

 

i wouldn't have it any other way. ours was a simple, intimate, cheap, stress-free (stress-free!!!) but it was our style and it was perfect for us! and no, i am not keen on doing another ceremony with all the frills at all.

[TexasHeartsIndia 371]

We got married 8 days after he arrived. I have a very small family and no one from his side was able to come due to the difficulty of obtaining tourist visas quickly/easily from India. Neither of us wanted a huge wedding and we were paying for all of it, so we decided to keep it small and simple. We are both religious though and it was important to us that we had a religious wedding rather than a courthouse wedding. I planned everything by myself before he got here and once his visa was approved, we finalized the date. I was close to the pastor at the time and was able to set a flexible wedding date then finalize once he had his visa. My matron of honor had a major meltdown the week before the wedding (because of my wedding), which was incredibly stressful, but otherwise we didn't have any major issues.

He moved in with me right away because I didn't have any family close enough for him to stay with prior to the wedding. It wasn't optimal, but we didn't have a choice. That was one reason we got married sooner. We wouldn't have done anything differently.

Best wishes to you and your fiance!

[Paul & Mallory 1,398]

5 hours ago, RJandHamid said:

We haven't reached the anniversary of either one yet, so I'm not sure which one we will focus more on. Probably the courthouse date, since that is when we were legally and officially married. The traditional ceremony was really just a big party. 

Did you guys have an actual ceremony the second time, or just more like a reception?

[Paul & Mallory 1,398]

1 hour ago, usmsbow said:

 

I realize this question wasn't directed towards me, but just thought I'd give my own experience: we use our wedding (ceremony) day as our anniversary, not our courthouse date, which was 1 month after my now-wife arrived.

 

OP- some court houses/city halls book up early. For instance San Francisco City Hall wedding slots fill quickly, and you have to book a couple months in advance (or at least that was the case a couple years ago). We got married in DC (where we lived at the time), and while it was pretty easy to set up a time, if we wanted a Friday slot, we would have been out of luck since the first available Friday was after my fiancee's k-1 expired. Kinda crazy. 

 

 

Thank you for sharing! I’ll take all the feedback I can get. 

 

We disnt initially plan on doing it like this so I’ve had to reset my thought pattern lol I’m wondering things like, do we announce it after the courthouse date or just the wedding date, etc. I know it really comes down to what you want in your particular situation but it’s still nice to hear others’ experience, if they’d do anything different, etc. 

[SB5130 88]

6 hours ago, Keenen and Nidia said:

 

How quickly after your fiancé(e) arrived in the USA did you marry? 

 

Curious to hear couples experiences of their preparations before their wedding and how living arrangements were done in convenience, be it separate or not,  and how it all worked out to the wedding day.

 

Any factors dictated the time to marry from plans made to plans actually being executed? Was it relatively easy or did anything come up unexpectedly in plans?

 

Looking back at your experiences, would you have done it the same way, or done it differently in the time you decided to marry? 

 

Thank you so much for any insights for a couple going through the K-1 visa process to marry. 

 

 

 

 

Date of Entry: Dec 14

Wedding Date: Dec 30 

 

16 days from entering U.S. Me and my husband are like-minded people. True partners. We liked the same thing.

The wedding was simple. We had the ceremony at our home. I used our stairs for my bride entry. Me, my husband and my in-laws work on the decorations. My in-laws ordered food and cake. My uncle took pictures during and after the ceremony. It was a simple ceremony shared with family members and close friends. 

 

We finalized everything within 16 days (bride dress& shoes shopping, decors shopping, food catering bookings). 

If I would have changed something, probably the dress. I will buy my dress in my home country. My bridal dress cost $86 and the alteration cost $180. It is even more than the dress itself. All the rest were good. It was awesome. It was simple, nothing fancy, no unnecessary expenses, and meaningful. Just the way we like it. 

[Knicks 21]

we got married at the courthouse 1month after arrival. I wanted to add her to my health care and start AOS process. We will be a traditional wedding next month

[Dutchster 1,107]

I arrived on my K-1 visa on July 29 and we got married on Sept 23 at the courthouse 

Changed everything on my SSN (like maiden -> married) the week after, with ~3 weeks left on my I-94 and filed AOS. 

[ShanghaiSurfer 135]

We got married in one month after arrival. We did a courthouse wedding to do it this quickly for AOS purposes. We will have a formal wedding at some point this year in both countries.

[TomEn 90]

2nd week at the JP's office.

[noraliz73 243]

I’m sad.  I wanted to have something involving my family, but it looks like the timing of his arrival will coincide with my parents going to Scotland.  And, we absolutely need to move.  The downstairs neighbors scream and bang all night and last week someone got shot on the next block.  I just can’t sleep in this apartment, and it’s no place for a new couple.  Then, there is Ramadan.  So, we will probably have a 5 minute paper signing somewhere with no ceremony or party or anything because I do not want to delay filing for the AOS so he can work and for him to be covered under my medical benefits.  It feels like the last year has been stolen from us due to the waiting and stress and we’ve gained so much weight and aged.  We need to go together to the doctor for checkups and stuff.  I switched to a more expensive health care plan this year, so I do not want to delay getting married even a day more that necessary so he will be covered immediately.  It’s a shame how all the timing worked out.  But, who could really be too ungrateful.  It wasn’t about a wedding, it was about being together!

[Illiria 980]

How quickly after your fiancé(e) arrived in the USA did you marry? 

 

A month - it happened to coincide with our dating anniversary so I don’t have to try and remember two dates. 

 

Curious to hear couples experiences of their preparations before their wedding and how living arrangements were done in convenience, be it separate or not,  and how it all worked out to the wedding day.

 

I moved in with him, no different from when we were living together in our home country. 

 

Any factors dictated the time to marry from plans made to plans actually being executed? Was it relatively easy or did anything come up unexpectedly in plans?

 

It was super simple, Vegas marriage in the commissioner of marriages office as we had planned and I just happened to get visa when we could marry on our dating anniversary. 

 

Looking back at your experiences, would you have done it the same way, or done it differently in the time you decided to marry? 

 

Looking back do direct consular filing even if his father died and I couldnt get all my police certs in time to file.

 

Thank you so much for any insights for a couple going through the K-1 visa process to marry. 

 

Be aware of the lack of green card and work permit for the first few months, plan a wedding that is low stress then once you have a green card go to town on a wedding renewal or party. Two stressors at the same time isn’t fun.  

[Daisy.Chain 317]

8 hours ago, Paul & Mallory said:

This is a personal question, so I certainly understand if you care not to respond - do you guys consider your wedding day as your "anniversary", or the courthouse date?

 

We are doing the same and wondering how big of a deal we should make the courthouse date, or if we should focus that on the wedding day we have later.

It's up to you! 

 

We got legally married a week after he got here and had our "real" wedding a week after that. We had our real wedding out of state, and the paperwork was a lot easier this way.

[visaqueries 111]

He arrived May 2.  We married May 7.  We applied for AOS on May 10.  He received his green card June 4 the following year (took 1 year and almost 1 month to get it).

 

We share a driveway that goes all the way to the back of the house.  My neighbor was not living in her home, so she offered it to me prior to the wedding.  My friend and I made chocolate ganache pyramids as the giveaway gift.  We had both pizza and Egyptian food at the wedding reception (also in the backyard).  My cousin's husband brought his DJ equipment, we borrowed decorations from other friends' weddings, and I got tables and chairs from my school (I'm a teacher).  I had ordered a dress, but it was from a company that didn't understand the correct measurements...so I bought a dress at Dillards.  There were about 75 people who attended the wedding, and it was just the amount of wedding I would have wanted.