Mexican Consulate helps couples tie the knot

Mexico's consulate provides various services to area residents of Mexican nationality, but the other day, it helped out Mario Marquez and Michelle Pacheco in a lesser-known way.

With Consul Miguel Escobar presiding, Marquez and Pacheco tied the knot at the consular office in downtown Yuma.

Mexican laws allows the Yuma consulate to perform weddings for expatriated couples who otherwise would have to go home for their nuptials.

In fact, the consulate will do the same for residents of nearby Mexican communities, and Marquez and Pacheco, both of whom reside in San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., decided to take advantage of what they described as a simple, low-cost route that dispensed with the many details that typically go into a wedding in Mexico.

So with friends, family members and co-workers looking on, the couple exchanged vows, took part in a toast and then enjoyed a wedding cake provided by the consulate.

“The personal treatment that the consulate gave us was pleasant,” Pacheco said after the ceremony. “It is a fast, efficient and low-cost service that made everything easy for us. Among all the hassles involved in the decision to get married, this has been the most agreeable. Any Mexican couple who lives here or abroad can get married in the consulate.”

Pacheco said the couple decided to marry in Yuma after learning about the service on the consulate's website.

“The facilities of the consulate are Mexican territory, so it turned out to be a less costly and faster procedure than in Mexico,” he said. “And this part of the city where the consulate is located is beautiful.”

As part of Mexico's Registro Civil, or Civil Registry, the consulate has the power to issue official documents, said Escobar, as well as perform weddings.

“It is one of the services that the Mexican government gives to its consulates, but it's not in much demand, despite the fact that the procedure is simple, economical and fast.”

In the past 10 years, perhaps a half-dozen wedding ceremonies have taken place at the Yuma consulate, said Marisssa Valenzuela, who handles wedding applications for the consulate.

“The weddings that are celebrated here have the same validity” as in Mexico, she said.