Ceremony site (Catholic wedding outside?)

[transferred post]

This is a thread that was started in our old BlissWeddings.com forums by JennBride06 on 3/02/05. Feel free to add your comments by pressing Post Reply.

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posted by JennBride06

Does anyone know if a catholic ceremony can be held outside of the church? My fiance and I are both catholic and would like to have a catholic ceremony. The problem is that we need to have the ceremony during the most popular time for Saturday afternoon mass. Any suggestions for a ceremony site?

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posted by feb-bride

No. Roman Catholic priests will only perform wedding ceremonies in the church. This seems to be one of the things they're pretty strict about.

Is there any way you can get married a little earlier?

You can always have your marriage "blessed" by a priest if having the wedding at a church is not feasible. Talk to your parish priest. I think they will do "private" wedding ceremonies at the church.

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posted by JennBride06

Thank you for the suggestion! A ceremony any earlier would mean our guest would be waiting for 2 (possibily more) hours before the reception. The reception hall is very strict about not allowing ANYONE into the banquet room earlier than 15 min prior to the reception time.

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posted by feb-bride

Is there somewhere that your guests could go between the ceremony and reception? I'm not sure when you're getting married, but if it's going to be during a "decent-weather" month, perhaps your guests could go to someone's house for sodas and light snacks in the backyard.

If a significant # of guests are going to be traveling from out of town, perhaps you could have something small in a hotel conference room.

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posted by suzyqnj

The priest can't do outside weddings, but the deacons of the church can. It wouldn't be the full catholic mass persay, but it would be more intune with a catholic ceremony without communion. And as feb-bride said, you can easily get your marriage blessed later. If you're both set on the full mass ceremony, I would try to do the wedding earlier and set up something for your guests to do while waiting for the actual reception to start.

Susan

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posted by suechick

I am being married by a "retired priest" who is still registered with our local diocese. He also married my sister, who had planned on an outdoor wedding, until the rain showed up on the day of her wedding. Since he was "retired" he could do what he wanted with the ceremony. She still had to do Pre-Kana, etc, and everything that went along with a Catholic wedding, but he had said he would perform it outside.

*sue ;o)

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posted by syringa

Have you considered having a small, family-only ceremony early in the day and then having a larger reception later? That way, if you want a nuptial mass, you could still have it.

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posted by Frogprincess987

You would just have to word the invitations to invite guests to the reception site and include "ceremony cards" only for family members who will be invited to the church.

For Example:
Mr & Mrs. Victor Harry Smith
request the pleasure of your company
at the wedding reception of their daughter
Elizabeth Sarah
and
Mr. Nicholas George Williams
Saturday, the fifth of January
two-thousand
at half after seven o'clock in the evening
Melbourne Country Club
Melbourne, Florida

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posted by csepuede

Does anyone know if a catholic ceremony can be held outside of the church? My fiance and I are both catholic and would like to have a catholic ceremony. The problem is that we need to have the ceremony during the most popular time for Saturday afternoon mass. Any suggestions for a ceremony site?

Yes and No. If you want the wedding to be officially recognized as a Catholic marriage by the Roman catholic Church, then you do need to follow the mandates of the church..specifically having it in a church.
Here is the other option,
there are Catholic ordained priests who have retired from the archdioese of Los Angeles who will perform a Catholic themed wedding outside of the church. The marriages they perform will not (at the outset) be recognized by the Catholic church as a Catholic marriage however it is a legal marriage officially recognized by the state of california.
For more information..contact Ben Zapata
csepuede1@aol.com

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posted by fritzie816

JennBride-
I just found Bliss, and I'm curious to know what you have decided to do about having the ceremony outside. My fiance and I are having a similar issue, but I am not Catholic, and want my father, an ordained minister, to participate in most of the ceremony. It's been a fight to find someone who is willing to share the ceremony with my father..and the Catholic priests we've met and talked to are not willing to budge..Suggestions?

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posted by JennBride06

We did decide to have the ceremony in the church. We are just going to have about an hour between the ceremony and reception. We'll be putting that information in the invitations so our guests won't be in the dark. A friend of mine ran into a similar situation. She wanted her father to play a role in her ceremony. She ended up being married in a Lutheran church. I hope that helps. God luck!! Coordinating the ceremony and reception was the most difficult part of the wedding planning so far. Once that was finished everything else has been falling into place.

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posted by Chernandez

The priest can't do outside weddings, but the deacons of the church can. It wouldn't be the full catholic mass persay, but it would be more intune with a catholic ceremony without communion. And as feb-bride said, you can easily get your marriage blessed later. If you're both set on the full mass ceremony, I would try to do the wedding earlier and set up something for your guests to do while waiting for the actual reception to start.

I didn't know about this.. Is that for all Catholic Churches ??

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posted by syringa

A mass is a sacrament of the church and must be performed in a church. A non-mass wedding can be performed anywhere. Whether a deacon is willing to perform it will depend on your local diocese. Some are stricter than others.