Hello All,
My fiancé and I will be hosting our wedding in the beautiful SMA! We visited a few months ago and knew this was a very magical place and wanted to have our wedding there. We stayed in SMA for 5 nights, we felt very safe, and didn't run into any crime. We were actually surprised how quiet it was at night! However, when I told my family (we live in California), they were not too keen on the idea of traveling to Mexico due to safety concerns, and they made the choice of not attending. I feel like a lot of their fear is politically and media driven. We are interested in hearing from expats regarding their experiences in SMA, do you feel safe...would you travel to SMA for a couple of days for a wedding? I am interested in hearing your thoughts! TIA.
Weddings in San Miguel de Allende - Safey Concerns
Media reporting drives paranoia. Like anywhere else in the world you need to maintain awareness and not engage in risky behavior. Flashing money, jewelry and other obvious bling is unwise in most locales in or out of Mexico. SMA is among North America's most popular wedding locations but if you want to include your paranoid relatives, SMA is a magnificent place for a honeymoon too!
I have been traveling to San Miguel for 13 years and felt so comfortable in going there that my wife and I brought our kids for 6 consecutive spring breaks. We have brought countless friends and relatives down over the years and within hours of being in town they all ended up loving the town and those who had concerns were amazed at how groundless those concerns were. One couple (50 somethings) almost backed out the night before the trip because his dad yelled at them over the phone for how irresponsible they were. 15 minutes out of the airport and they were exclaiming "This is not at all what we expected". They have asked repeatedly to go back with us. We will celebrate 3 years of owning a house this July and we have more requests to visit by friends than we can schedule.
As for weddings. San Miguel is the wedding capitol of Mexico. Not only a destination point for Mexicans desiring to marry but Americans, Canadians, Australians, Germans etc. I know because EVERY weekend I am there I see a wedding procession or reception going on. There were 600 weddings in San Miguel last year. How do I know? I have a very good (American) friend who runs a high end house rental company in San Miguel who's clientele regularly include wedding parties. She herself was married there last May and hers was the best wedding I've ever attended.
Your family will surely regret not attending. Where in California do they live by the way? Is there some magical place in Cali where there is no crime? I'm not talking about cartel business, but just burglary or muggins? Or maybe they are in the drug business? If so they definitely should not come, those are the people suffering violence in Mexico. Do they consider the whole US is dangerous because of LA, Chicago, Detroit etc crime statistics or do they make logical decisions to live in the US because they know the vast majority of the US is safe? The same is true for Mexico.
Feel free to PM me if you want more info.
Stuart
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