Married Twice in Mexico: An FAQ on the Civil and the Church Wedding — Epoche B1
In Mexico, only the civil ceremony, performed before an official of the Registro Civil, creates a marriage in law; a church wedding has no legal effect by itself. This is why many couples marry twice, sometimes weeks apart. Here are the questions that visitors ask. Which wedding is the real one? Legally, the civil one. The constitution treats marriage as a civil contract and leaves it entirely to the civil authorities — a rule that dates from the nineteenth-century Reform Laws, when the state took the registers of birth, marriage and death out of the hands of the Church. What actually happens at the civil ceremony? The couple appear with their witnesses before the judge of the Registro Civil. The act of marriage is read aloud, and everyone signs the register. The couple choose their property regime: joint property or separate property. For many years the judge also read the "Epístola de Melchor Ocampo", an old text on the duties of husband and wife; a number of states have now dropped it, because its description of women belongs to another century. Which wedding changes my taxes and my inheritance? The civil one, and specifically that choice of property regime. It decides what belongs to whom, what a widow or widower inherits, and how income is treated. The church ceremony changes none of this. Why are the two dates often far apart? Because a civil wedding needs an office, witnesses and a Thursday morning, while a church wedding needs a parish date, preparation courses, a hall and two hundred guests. Practicality separates them. So which anniversary do people celebrate? Ask a couple and you may be given two. The photographs remember one wedding; the notary remembers the other. References Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, Article 130 — marriage as a civil contract and the competence of the civil authorities. Código Civil Federal (Mexico), Book One, Title Five — marriage, the Civil Registry and matrimonial property regimes. Ley del Matrimonio Civil, 23 July 1859 (Reform Laws), Mexico.