Tropical wedding boom leaves some waiting at the altar

Last Updated: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 | 12:11 PM ET

CBC News

More Canadians are walking on sand instead of down aisles on their wedding day, and many are doing it in the Dominican Republic — so many, in fact, that it's creating some hitches in getting hitched.

In 2006, more than 2,500 Canadian couples got married in the Caribbean country. Listin Diario, a daily newspaper in the Dominican Republic, reported in January that 20 per cent of weddings performed in the country are between foreigners.

Thousands of Canadian couples get married in the Caribbean each year.
(Joseph L. Smith/Associated Press)

Hotels in the country offer customized and all-inclusive wedding packages, and they're relatively cheap compared to North American nuptials. All-inclusive wedding packages can range anywhere from $825 to $2,000 US.

But the country only has two judges that perform weddings, and they're booked solid until the end of April. That means Canadians hoping to get married there have to sign on to a waiting list, and some have been turned away.

Isabel Gonzalez translates wedding documents in the Dominican Republic. She said the country is in the process of hiring more judges specifically to perform weddings. But she said that could take a while.

Those who can't wait for the warm weather have found their way around the waiting list.

"They are doing all their paperwork and technically getting married here," said Laurie Roy Girard, a wedding planner from Fredericton. "But they're having the symbolic wedding over there."

Those who managed to book a judge to perform their wedding in the Dominican Republic might still find themselves waiting on the big day.

Judges there often run behind schedule — which could mean a delay of a couple of hours on the wedding day.