Two wedding ceremonies...

[bholiday 0]

I have kind of an unusual situation. I had a big wedding and reception on a Sunday in the philippines. It was a civil ceremony, performed by a civil servant, so it was not official. (civil servants in the philippines are not to do official business on sunday). The next day, on Monday, my wife and I went to the Municipal office in her home town, and were married by the mayor.

We really considered Sunday to be our wedding, but our marriage certificate says we were married on monday. All our pictures, our wedding announcements, receipts etc say our wedding was sunday april 22. Our marriage license says we were married on april 23.

I am about to send in my I 130 package. I am thinking i will just write a letter explaining why we had two ceremonies, submit my wedding pictures from my sunday big wedding and reception, some affidavits from three of my wifes family members, reciepts and other evidence and see what happens.

On the other hand, I could just submit my marriage license, without any pictures from the sunday wedding and without the proof of reciepts etc and see what happens. Basically just send in the bare minimum...and not even mention our big wedding and reception with all the bells and whistles.

I don't have any pictures of us at the civil ceremony that was the "official" marriage.

Does anyone see any problem with the fact that we had a wedding on sunday for 150 people, but then had to have a marriage ceremony the next day to make it legal.

I'm really confused....HELP!!!!

Edited July 3, 2007 by bholiday

[pushbrk 12,999]

I have kind of an unusual situation. I had a big wedding and reception on a Sunday in the philippines. It was a civil ceremony, performed by a civil servant, so it was not official. (civil servants in the philippines are not to do official business on sunday). The next day, on Monday, my wife and I went to the Municipal office in her home town, and were married by the mayor.

We really considered Sunday to be our wedding, but our marriage certificate says we were married on monday. All our pictures, our wedding announcements, receipts etc say our wedding was sunday april 22. Our marriage license says we were married on april 23.

I am about to send in my I 130 package. I am thinking i will just write a letter explaining why we had two ceremonies, submit my wedding pictures from my sunday big wedding and reception, some affidavits from three of my wifes family members, reciepts and other evidence and see what happens.

On the other hand, I could just submit my marriage license, without any pictures from the sunday wedding and without the proof of reciepts etc and see what happens. Basically just send in the bare minimum...and not even mention our big wedding and reception with all the bells and whistles.

I don't have any pictures of us at the civil ceremony that was the "official" marriage.

Does anyone see any problem with the fact that we had a wedding on sunday for 150 people, but then had to have a marriage ceremony the next day to make it legal.

I'm really confused....HELP!!!!

No problem. Your marriage certificate will verify the date. In our case the legal marriage was on Thursday and the Church ceremony was on Friday. There is no need to submit any wedding pictures with the petition. You can show them if asked for at interview. The purpose then is to help establish a bonafide relationship, not the date of your marriage.

[Reba 2]

all they care is that you are legally married. Your marriage certificate dated on the Monday is the "legal" part of it and what they want to see in the petition package.

[bholiday 0]

Thanks for the advice guys...

[tol82go 0]

My situation is kind of like this also. I went to the Philippines married my beautiful wife and everything went great until the day before I left. We realized that the place of birth for my wife on the marriage certificate was wrong. The register had put my wife current residence instead of her place of birth. Upon some more research I learned that the only way to change it is to hire an attorney in the Phil. and get a court order which takes at least a month. So I am wondering how critical will that be? should I just send it in for the K-3 visa and not worry about it right now? We will still have to change it since I believe when she goes to get her passport it will be a problem. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Devil's_Advocate 0]

Congratulations on your wedding. Might I suggest DisneyWorld for your honeymoon?

[kim&james 0]

Congrats on your wedding and nice to see that your happy now.