JOP then wedding

[KT27]

Anybody get married by a JOP & then have a formal wedding later on? Fill me in on the pros & cons. Thanks!

 

[hiwaygal]

I did!

We were already planning our Disney wedding and decided that getting the license in Florida was too much of a hassle and too expensive.

So we changed our Disney Wedding to a "vow renewal"; it was four days after our JOP wedding. I really thought the JOP wedding was going to be very quick and very basic and very simple, but our JOP actually made me cry!

My family couldn't go to Disney with us, but they did come up for the JOP wedding and that was really nice. Then we had our Disney wedding and it was just us and it was so beautiful and wonderful.

Our "reception" was basically me and DH, my parents, and my brother and SIL having dinner at a steakhouse chain then walking through the Bass Pro Shop for a couple of hours

It was great!

Pros, you can actually get married on any day you want, then have all the celebration stuff later (when it's more convenient or cheaper).

Cons, you have to find a way to keep the second wedding as "special" as the JOP thing because the JOP thing is what REALLY makes you married (does that make sense?).

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

I did too!

Dh and I were both active duty and he got orders. Since the military only recognizes a marriage for Joint spouse assignments and not an engagement, we had a JOP ceremony 6 weeks prior to our wedding. In fact, at our JOP ceremony, DH was in his flight suit and I was in my BDUs! 3 weeks later (and 3 weeks before our wedding), I got orders for the same location and report date as DH.

We don't actually celebrate our JOP ceremony (which will be 11 years on Friday). We celebrate the wedding date because our wedding had been planned for quite some time when we realized we needed the JOP ceremony. But we have to remember the JOP date for official paperwork when asked for the date we got married.

Big pro: the wedding day becomes less nerve racking. I knew DH couldn't get cold feet (not that he would!). It was a lot more fun for me knowing that we were already married. Obviously the minister was aware, but since he was a military chaplain, he understood our situation.

5 months later we "tested" our young marriage by driving from Idaho to Florida with 2 cars, a boat and 2 cats!