The parrot Davy wanted for his birthday is no more, is as dead as a dodo, don't worry all you animal lovers it was a toy one in a cage that sings everytime you clap, (or a scooter goes by, or a taxi reverses or horn beep please) Surendras baby twisted its neck, Thank heavans

Hi lin b
Good one hope that dosent happen when the
real one arrives in nov.
cmj

Don't even THINK about it

Hello Everyone

My friend and her fiance are thinking about getting married in Goa . They have never been but have seen my photos and love it.

They have two children and dont want a massively expensive wedding.

Can anyone provide information on:

1) buying flights/hotel rooms for around 10+ people that are nice but not hugely expensive.

2)Where to have it?

3)legal requirements

Thanks....and please help....its the biggest day of her life!!!!

Hi

I can't help you on the wedding planning, but I can tell you that Goa is lovely, and they wont be disappointed.

Check the links below for hotel accommodation

http://www.cheapaccommodation.com/Goa/3-star-hotel/#More%20Info

http://directrooms-india.com/goa-hotels/price1.htm

Also, you can search google for other hotel accommodation companies.

I think you will have to just search for flights online and travel agencies.

You can get in touch with a wedding planner in goa, he has an office in candolim. Lester Melo http://www.melotours.com or email mailto:weddings@melotours.com.
You can have the ceremony almost anywhere you like, beach, hotel ect, but the legalities can take 3 days of you and your witnesses time, you can always do the legal bit here and have the ceremony/blessing in goa.
There is a thread on weddings already, but you may have to trawl through several pages to find it.

Lin

Try this website, it may be of help:

http://www.weddingplannersgoa.com

Also, I've just received the Travel Pack Goa Brochure and they also do wedding packages in Goa for £425 per couple. Their website:

http://www.travelpack.com/goa if you would like to see the Brochure on line.

Regards
Linda

Hi going to Goa for first time late november - December 05. Never been before but heard great things about the place, hope its all true as we have chosen to get married there as well. Any info on anything would be great. Thanks

Having got married in goa in 2003 i would suggest you possibly have a slight rethink.

Are you having the civil side of your wedding done in goa or are you getting that done in the uk.

Who is arranging your civil wedding in goa, as if you have not started sending all the paperwork over you will be pushing your luck a bit. Also you cannot legally get married in goa unless you have lived there for 6 months

Dont want to put you off but if you have someone arranging it that dont know what they are doing you will not get married out there, also even if you do be prepared to spend at least 7 days of your holiday in mapusa going between the high court and the registrar.

What i would suggest would be to get an afternoon flight get a married in a registery office (much cheaper and much much more romantic believe it or not) and then arrange for a blessing on the beach during the 2nd week.

Get all your wedding outfits and wedding rings made in goa as its much cheaper and better quality. Also our blessing cost £1200 if we had done it in the uk it would have cost well in excess of £20k.

I hope i havent put a downer on things and if you need more info then please ask away, but i would recommend to anyone not to get married out there but have your blessing out there.

Regards

Peter

Also to give you some idea of costs. (please note prices relevant to Nov 2003)

Civil Wedding £320 this includes all lawyers fees, bribes, passport forgery, witness payments, wedding certificates.

Blessing £1200, this includes elephants to take you to the beach, food for 50ppl, free bar from 4pm till midnight, 3 piece wedding cake, holy man, 96 photos inc album (inc 2 additional copies and negatives), 40 mins of fireworks and fire jugglers etc, 5 piece live band on stage, decorations flowers etc.

Wedding outfits £200 for both of us, all made to measure to our own design. Heres a pic

Wedding rings £560 for the pair, made to our design since valued at £2500.

Hope that helps a little.

Regards

Peter

Peter,
You look soooo dapper in your wedding outfit and I love Mrs Peter's dress!!
I met a couple in a bar in baga last year who came across the same problem. Had the wedding then found out that they wern't really married. They had lots of trips into Mapusa and had to extend their hol by 1 week in order to have the civil lawful ceremony!! On the day that they were actually properly married, he was wearing his Liverpool Football top and she was wearing a denim mini skirt.
........Oh don't you just love Goa!!
Goldenflipflop

Hi

Yeah the registry office is mad, we spent hours/days there and at the end of everything they just call you into the office sign a bit of paper and thats it, we were like nice!!!!

Heres a pic just after we signed said form and the lovely office lol

Im really supprised that they still managed to get married as we were sending out paperwork for months before we arrived in goa, birth certificates all kinds of weird and wonderfull stuff that they said was required.

Think the funniest part of it was that we had to present ourselves to the judge in mapusa to get the ok to get married and she was asking us loads of questions about us, our familys etc and wanted to know the names of our grandparents parents was like ????? so i have got various bits of paperwork stamped from the court as my great grandparents being hilda ogden ferguson and alex ferguson

nice story.

The wedding picture is great, your outfits are very swish. Something really different and totally memorable.
Thanks for sharing.

Sharon

Thanks Peter for your reply we are just finding out about the minefield of paperwork needed!
We have booked holiday / wedding package with Travelpack and thought this would be a legal marriage maybe not! Think we may need to talk to wedding specailist again, hope we can sort it out as we are really looking forward to going to Goa & of course getting married.
Did you book your wedding from the UK or arrange it when you were out there? Thanks again.

Hi gailjane,have to agree with peter, it can be a bit of a minefield, I have a wedding in Nov, most of it we arranged ourselves, what part of Goa are you staying, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Lin

Hi gailjane

I arranged the wedding in 2 parts, a local businessman and friend in goa who has arranged weddings for europeans before arranged our civil side, and bobby from bobbys shack arranged the blessing.

The civil side took well over 6 months to arrange before we even arrived in the country, it is not a simple thing todo mainly because of the way the goans work and because you legally cannot get married in goa without a helping hand.

I am sure that an abta/atol travel agent are not going to be able to arrange your wedding unless something has changed in the last 2 years.

Even if they can arrange for your wedding to be done in goa (civil side) i would totally recommend that you dont, you will lose a week of your holiday and be totally stressed. Get married in the uk before hand as i said before and have your blessing in goa.

Also the civil wedding is nothing like the uk church/registry office wedding you basically sign a form and thats it, you wont even get your marriage certificate at the time (takes about 4 weeks to come through) and the ceremony is basically the blessing. This is the same for locals as well as europeans hence why they have massive blessings/weddings out there.

damn its all flooding back to me now Also even once you have jumped through all the hoops and paid to have various things done the judge can quite easily turn round and refuse your wedding on the slightest thing. The judge we had, had not allowed anyone goan/foreign to be married in 5 years, the reason was she had lost her husband and did not want anyone else to be as upset as she was. We were the first couple she had allowed to be married in that time as she saw how in love we were. This was not just a typical goan story even our lawyer once he saw the name of the judge was like gulp you probably wont be getting married. And after 4 days of going to see her and all the hassle it was touch and go.

However the blessing was tops and i wouldnt change anything as it was such a unique experience however i would recommend ppl against what we went through and just do the blessing in goa and not the civil side.

Regards

Peter

ps. if you need names and numbers for ppl that we used feel free to pm me and i will send you them.

Thanks Peter for all your info. I hear what your saying and it does sound like less hassel to marry at home first. Youve given me lots to think about. All I know for sure is that in 12 weeks time we'll be in Goa Cant wait.
Thanks again Gail.

Hi Gail

Your welcome, i am sorry if i put a downer on things, just dont want you to be dissapointed especially as its your first visit.

As i said if i can help further please feel free to ask.

(edit) yes its less hassle to get married at home, but if you have your blessing done in goa you will get more than you can ever imagine. whilst i will always say dont do the civil side in goa, i will always recommend the blessing in goa as it cant be bettered anywhere in the world. So as stated afternoon flight out, in the morning do the registry office and then chill out for a week with friends and family on the beaches and then have a cool blessing.

Hi all, I am getting married in Goa in November 06 and would appreciate any advice from those who have done this before. Things like what type of documentation i need to take with me and the process once in Goa. I think we need an affidavit confirming we are elligable for marriage. Do I need to arrange this with a court in the same area as the wedding is due to take place?

I am going in march and hope to make arrangements then for November.

Thanks in advance

Sonofscouse