2 wedding in 2 different countries?? Advice appreciated!!

1. When you exchange vows on January 3, that is your wedding. Even when you have the ceremony in a courthouse, it is a wedding.

2. That means that when you get all dressed up on another day and have the celebration, that means it is just a party.

You clearly can do whatever you want in this situation because it is totally up to you. It is your family, your ceremony, your money.

I'd consider it another reception or just a party. No ceremony or frills. Wear your dress if you'd like to get some extra use out of it, but if you don't want to do a big (read: expensive) party, you can do something more low-key, it just might be weird to wear a big dress for something like that. It's really up to you, your budget, and your style for what you'd like to do but I think a party to celebrate with your US friends would be a lot of fun! And bem-vindo

We are in a similar situation as I'm Canadian, FH is English and we live in England. We are having a very small family wedding in Canada and then we are having a large party for my other family and friends the next day. We will then have a dinner/reception back here in the UK for his family and our friends here. We figured if only close family were invited to the actual ceremony and then we held parties for everyone else in separate events, it was the most fair way to approach it.

I'd have your second party, but don't re-do the ceremony. You can rent a hall and have a meal and dancing, or do something more casual. That's up to you really... and how much you want to spend. I'd also stay away from doing things like any bouquet or garter tosses but other than that... have fun and enjoy yourself!

I would do your original plan and get married in Brazil, and do a "wedding celebration" here! You wont need a ceremony because you'll already be married so make it more of a reception style: food, dancing, drinking, etc. It is totally up to you obviously, I would cut things out the second time around if you wanted two celebrations to make it less expensive.

My situation is opposite! My FH is from Brazil and I am American. We are having a big wedding here and when we go to Brazil we will be having another wedding there, though it will be smaller, surrounded by church, friends, and family.

I disagree with @jessiesgirl in the wedding aspect.

It is just important to us for his family to hear us recite our vows as it is for my family here in America.

I suggest maybe having a small ceremony at a park and then depending on your budget decide whether you would like something catered.

I say do whatever you want, but if you're going to live in the US, get legally married here. It makes things so, so much easier when you need that license for insurance, etc.

I will say that I did have friends that were both Canadian but lived in Turkey for a while. They got married in Turkey but when they moved back home (maybe 6 months later... they didn't want to wait to marry in Canada) they had a Canadian wedding. Everyone knew they were already married and they were open about it. None of their families were able to make it to Turkey for their wedding and they felt that it was important to be there for that, so they had a non-legal ceremony and then a reception with dinner and dancing. She wore her sister's wedding dress and they had a bit more fun with it than a normal wedding (she came down the aisle to a pretty peppy song, instead of a more traditional song, etc.). I think because we all knew they were married, it didn't bother us that they had a second wedding, but I can see that in a lot of cases, it would be something people wouldn't like (esp. if it's treated as the "real" wedding if they previously only had a small ceremony).

My uncle's wife is from Sudan, so they had the ceremony and reception there with her family, then they came here and had another reception with our family. Their situation was much different, my aunt's parents have a lot of money and they paid for the Sudan wedding 100%, and my grandparents paid for their reception here. She wore the same dress here for the reception that she wore in Sudan.

If you want to get married in Brazil, maybe throw a small reception afterwards, then have a party to celebrate your marriage in the US. You can still wear your dress. It doesn't have to be a huge, expensive wedding in either location.

A lot of my friends did things like this, not only because they had families in different parts of the world, but because their families were different religions as well.

For example, one couple I know, the bride is Catholic and the groom is Hindu. Her family considered the Catholic wedding to be the wedding that was important to them, whilst his family considered the Hindu wedding to be the one that was important to them. At the end of the day, all their family and friends recognise both weddings because it is seen that they got married in two different "realms". I'm not sure which one is their LEGAL wedding date (i.e. the one on any marriage licences).

Other friends and family just had one wedding and then a reception in their different countries and so both families recognise one wedding date, but just had two different reception parties.

Thanks so much for the comments guys! I grew up catholic, so I will be getting married in church there. My FH grew up Baptist, but we now follow a lot of Buddhism traditions, so I though about having someone say a few words or a blessing having in mind our current beliefs and our backgrounds. The one here would definitely be more like a reception, more informal, but I didn't want people here to feel like they missed out on the real thing. His grandparents are in their 80/90s and it means a lot that they are a part of it as well. Wedding dress or not?

And @Erin, unfortunately not the beach, I'm from a smaller city of Sao Paulo state

We are getting married in the US with a ceremony and reception. Then a couple weeks later when we move to the NL we'll have a reception. We plan on wearing the same clothes we're married in here.

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I agree, I think the vows are important in both places - that's what people come to see! That and fun dancing

We’re in a similar situation. My FH is Moroccan and I live in Morocco but i’m from the US. Our problem is when we get married in Morocco, we plan on moving to Germany ( I’m a dual citizen) but we still want a reception in the USA with my family and friends. So we’d have to do it during a vacation so that’ll be interesting. This thread helps though

View Quoted Comment Girl yasss. I am american/ Christian and he is Moroccan/ muslim. I dont know what to do about our wedding because it is important for me to be married in the church and for him to be married in there traditional way. I am at a lost cause i want my family and friends to see me marry the love of my life as well as his lovely family to see him marry me. 🥺🥺🥺