Secrets Cap Cana Resort & Spa  

• Minimum residency period prior to marriage: 3 working days
• Minimum age :  18 years old

Documents Required for Civil (legal) Wedding

• Valid original 10-year UK/Irish passport (with 6 months validity on your return home
• The original of your birth certificate, showing your parents' names.
• Affidavit to prove single status (If the affidavits are dated earlier than six months before the date of the wedding, they must obtain new ones.

If Required

• If you have been divorced, the original of your decree absolute.  According to Dominican Law a divorced woman has to wait 10 months before remarrying.
• If you have been widowed, the original copy of your partner's death certificate.
• If you have changed your name, the original copy of the deed poll proof of name change will be required. Please note that if you have been divorced and have reverted to using your maiden name then this counts as a change of name, and proof of that change will be required.
• If you were adopted, the original copy of your adoption certificate.

Before you travel:

All documents listed above – except for passport, must be legalised by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.  Once legalised, we suggest using the services of ‘WE DO TRANSLATION’ to complete the wedding formalities.  They will translate all the documents into Spanish, endorse them with the Dominican Embassy and send them to the resort & hotel.  Please contact and pay them directly at:

www.wedo.com.do / isagon@wedo.com.do / Telephone: 001 809-383-2199

WE DO TRANSLATION costs – from US$200 per person for the translation and consular legalization of Birth Certificate and Single Status Affidavit.  If previously married, there is an additional charge of US$105.00 per person, for the translation and certification of the divorce decree or death certificate, plus US$35.00 to cover the courier service. 

Couples must send documents to WE DO TRANSLATION 12 weeks before the wedding.  Please note that you are required to pay locally for the Judge to perform your legal/Civil wedding ceremony.  An approximate cost for this is US$540 (subject to change).   All original documents must be taken with you when you travel.

As Tropical Sky weddings have no jurisdiction over hotels/resorts/venues/legal requirements and their charges, we cannot be responsible for any increases or changes to these wedding arrangements.  We will, however, endeavour to advise you of changes as soon as we are made aware of them.  All prices and legal requirements correct as of June 2017.

Translation of documents.  All legal documents must be in English or legally translated into English. All translated documents must be from a legal translator with letterhead, stamp and seal from the translator's office or notarised by a Notary Public.  Occasionally the documentation will have to be sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for their approval before being sent back to the notary to sign.

The Wedding Ceremony.  In most destinations, your wedding ceremony will be conducted Monday to Friday (excluding local holidays).  In some destinations, local festivals and holidays will determine available wedding dates.  Generally, your wedding will take place in the grounds of the hotel unless otherwise specified.  Many hotels offer wedding gazebos for extra privacy.  Some hotels may offer more than one wedding per day with the first wedding taking place at around 10am with the last wedding at 4pm.  The majority of our weddings are conducted by a marriage officer whose title varies depending on the resort.  Where it is possible to be married by a Minister, the ceremony will be non-denominational unless otherwise stated and will be a civil wedding.

Tropical Sky Weddings and the information given above only apply to couples that are born in the UK & Ireland & have a valid UK/Irish passport.  If couples do not fulfil these requirements they must advise us.  Couples should be referred to the embassy of the country of origin and the country where they wish to marry as they may require extra documentation to satisfy their own embassy requirements – Tropical Sky cannot advise on this and couples must investigate this on their own.

Symbolic Wedding Ceremonies

You may have done some research and found that having a legal Civil wedding in the Dominican Republic can be fraught with additional costs for the Judge, or that you have to or just don’t have the time to complete the array of translations and certifications required for a legal wedding.   Regardless if you booked a free wedding or not, the marriage validation, Judge fees to perform the wedding are paid for locally and can amount up to $1000.  Many wedding couples are now choosing to be legally married in the UK followed by a symbolic wedding ceremony in resort with family and friends. Symbolic weddings are less costly, and a great choice for busy couples that prefer to bypass the gathering and completion of documentation required for a legally-binding ceremony in a foreign country.