residency requirements?

[monlyba]

i'm trying to figure out a 12/2008 wedding during a cruise. ideally i'd love for us to get married somewhere beautiful while docked somewhere during a cruise, like a beach, in a garden, whatever.

 

what i am confused about is the residency requirements. i see that many people are mentioning that they are getting married during a cruise in all sorts of places including USVI, Mexico, Jamaica, etc. in my early research, i thought you couldn't get married at many of those places without being in the location for 24-48 hrs before you could be issued a marriage license by the local agencies. how are some of you marrying in these areas if you're just docking for one day during a cruise? maybe i'm missing something. the only place i have found so far that seems to make it easy for you to do it as soon as you get off the ship is Caymans, and i am having to plan my searches around that which is difficult. help! :o

[ShedQueen77]

Most Caribbean locations do not have a residency requirement. Here's a link to a list of the common Caribbean wedding destinations and their requirements:

 

http://honeymoons.about.com/cs/caribgeneral/a/caribweddingreq.htm

 

I'm a little confused about Jamaica. Some sites say there is one, some say not. I've seen others here who have been married in Jamaica off of cruises though. Weird....I tried to post a different website but I guess I'm not allowed to because it starred it out. Odd considering that CC allows this site's tickers in signatures...but I digress...Put Caribbean wedding requirements into Google and click on the 3rd one down! ;)

 

Mexico is a little different. Cozumel doesn't have a residency requirement, but several other Mexican locations have waiting periods that they require you to be in the country through the duration of.

 

http://marriage.about.com/od/international/p/mexico.htm

[monlyba]

thanks Lora, that's what i was confused about too. i'm not too picky on where we get married, we're both just fond of the idea of being on a cruise, getting off the ship somewhere gorgeous and tying the knot on the beach, and getting back on to go somewhere else! so i'm trying to figure out which place will be easiest and not incredibly expensive. i realized last night in my searching that it seems to be easy (and relatively cheaper) in USVI as well. there are a few cruises i like that dock on the day we want in Mexico or Jamaica so i've been trying to figure out how brides are able to plan to get married there when all the sites i saw said there was a residency requirement. thanks for your help, i'll check out those sites!

[ShedQueen77]

If you contact a wedding planner, they'll get you through all the legal stuff pretty quickly. Have you decided whether to use the ship's coordinator or one on the island yet?