Any Catholic couples planning a non-church wedding?

Continued... However, we don't belong to the Parish there and so the one and only Catholic Church will not marry us. My parents don't belong either, as there Church was in my hometown a couple hours from that area, but they recently moved and have not yet joined a new Church. My parents have stated they could join that Parish, but FH and I still live several states away so even meeting with the Church would be complicated. Since neither of us attend Mass regularly, we also don't belong to a Church in our current city. If my parents were to join the Church where we want to marry, and us in our current city so we can do pre-cana, I fear we're looking at moving the wedding from this Fall to at least Spring. Then we overlap with my cousin's wedding so would have to delay even further. At that point, we'll have an engagement lasting 18 months-2 years, and I don't want to wait that long. Just curious if others have struggled with this dilemma of possibly not having a Catholic wedding.

My mom is a practicing Catholic and my step dad is not so they chose to have a neutral wedding by a justice of the peace but they both had the wedding blessed in a ceremony at both of their churches a couple months after the legal wedding.

I have married plenty of Catholic couples in venue ceremonies; many of them have chosen to have their marriage blessed by the church afterwards.

Both my FH and I are practicing Christians, however we won't be getting married in our church because Christian churches tend not to be very pretty lol we believe that we can still make our ceremony a sacred and religious event even if it isn't in a church. I wouldn't feel guilty if I was you

I am catholic and we are not having a catholic ceremony. We both want an outdoor wedding and my cousin who is an Episcopalian priest is our officiant. My mother is not pleased, but is slowly getting over it.

If you really want the catholic ceremony, can't you just join your local church?

@Laura - we could join our local Church here in North Carolina where we live, but we want to get married in the Finger Lakes in NY where my family's summer cottage is.

My husband is Catholic and I am not. We did not get married in a church – and we are both 100% OK with that decision.

Getting married in a Catholic church usually requires a lot of hoops to jump through. I know multiple Catholic couples who did not get married in the church. DH is Catholic and attends mass regularly, and we didn't (I'm not Catholic, but we're both still religious). One of my friends who is so Catholic she literally has nuns in her family and she and her FH saved themselves for marriage didn't even get married in the Catholic church! So I don't think this is something you should/need to feel guilty about.

I'm catholic and don't plan to have a catholic ceremony. Some family is upset but it's just not something we're into.

I am Catholic and always wanted a Catholic ceremony with Ave Maria being sung as I walked down the aisle. FH is non denominational Christian and the venue we fell in love with isn't a church. I'm okay with it. Maybe at some point we'll have our marriage blessed. FH isn't quite ready for all the Catholic stuff.

FH is Catholic and I was raised Catholic although really don't identity as religious anymore, we are getting married outside (hoping to find an Episcopalian priest to officiate) and per FHs request we are going to look into doing a convalidation with the church.

My FH and I are very devout Catholics and I've worked in a church for over 7 years now so I had to comment. If you're feeling to pull to get married in the Church, please do it!!! Even if you are not religious now, getting married in the Church brings so many blessings. Plus, you don't want any regret on your wedding day, and that goes across the board with everything! I'm surprised the parish would not marry you if you weren't parishioners; normally parishioners just get first dibs. You can also have a small marriage ceremony beforehand with just you and a priest in NC a few days before your big wedding; we've done that at my parish before too. You'd get married in the Church that day, and legally married on your wedding day. Most Churches require 6 month notice so you'd still be fine in terms of a Fall wedding. I would explain your situation with the parish priest there - that you would even join the Church just to get married there because you feel strongly about getting married in a Catholic Church. I would hope most priests in today's day and age would be so happy to help you do that. Does the church have to be right in that town? You could probably go a few towns over from your reception venue and no one would mind (my church is 30 minutes from my venue which seems about average). Also most weddings only require a meeting with the priest maybe once or twice; the rest can be done through email/phone. The only thing I don't know is if Pre Cana has to be done in that Archdiocese, but even still, you can do a weekend one so it's only one trip. Please let me know if I can help in some way; I'm in NY but I'm the Archdiocese of New York so I'm not as familiar with the Finger Lakes diocese. Prayers for you and your future husband!

My FH family are practicing Catholics. I am not, and religion doesn't play a part in our lives whatsoever so we're getting married on the beach in a secular ceremony. I'm Greek and my mom was a little upset I wasn't doing the whole my big fat greek wedding thing lol but she came around. It's easier to meet in the middle than make one of us get married in a church we don't belong to

We're getting married in a Church!! Im catholic and my FH is Baptist however he was baptized in the Catholic Church. It's been a huge pain in the butt however I just can't imagine myself getting married outside of a church. I was never one to day dream about my wedding when I was younger however every time I imagined it I was in a church. I personally would regret it if I didn't have a catholic wedding.

Do what makes you happy. No guilt no regrets. If getting married through the Catholic Church is what your heart desires, pray about it, have faith and make it happen.

I am Catholic and FH is not. It was always my dream to be married in the Catholic church, however circumstances kept popping up and so we decided not to get married in the church. I'm fine with this, we decided to do a private Convalidation Ceremony on our 1 yr anniversary and have already been in contact with the church to do this.

You both have to decide what's best for you! If you don't feel you want to get married outside the church, is there a church near your reception venue that would work? Some churches will allow you to do the classes and meetings and such at a different church and send the forms to the location where you're getting married, have you checked that out? Then there's the convalidation option.

If you're worried about the timeline involved with a church wedding, mine only requires notice six months before. You'll have plenty of time! And there aren't that many 'hoops' to jump through

I'm Catholic, FH is Lutheran. We're getting married outside of the church and getting it blessed afterwards. As PP's have stated, you two need to decide what's best for you.

I did not read your whole OP.

But FH and I were both also baptized and confirmed. We dont actively participate in the church but still hold our beliefs. We are getting married at our venue as well.

I always thought I wanted a church and didn't even consider otherwise until he proposed. with our venues available date being a Friday, it logically made sense to not do a church.

Along with us not being active members, my and his work schedule would not allow for us to do pre Cana and priest meetings and whatever other strings come attached from the church.

If later we decide we want any kids baptized we can get our marriage blessed to do so. Until then we are fine with our decision.

We are both confirmed catholic and went back and forth but ultimately decided on doing a church ceremony. They were very accommodating so I would just contact a few churches, if that is indeed what you want. Also, my friend is living in MD and getting married in the poconos, she is doing pre Cana by her where she lives and then getting married at a different church in the poconos. She just had to send the paperwork that precana was completed, etc. she isn't a parishioner at the one in MD and they were welcoming. We decided to do it more for our future children as we wanted to have them baptized, if we didn't want kids it wouldn't have been as big of a deal. But if I were you I'd call a few churches just to see what's possible with your current timeline. I wouldn't push the wedding back necessarily but since there isn't many people getting married in Catholic Churches they seem to be pretty flexible, at least in my experience.