Catholic brides: differences in planning for us

Hey! I’m doing a catholic mass, it’s going to be a full mass. I’m keeping enough time in between to take pictures outside and inside the church with immediate family and bridal party. My reception starts at 7pm so I have enough time in between the mass and reception to stop somewhere to take more pictures. So for example I’m going to a historical landmark with a park (depending on the weather) to take more pictures. As far as pre cana, the priest should give you a timeline of when all the paperwork and pre cana is due by. My fiancé and I finished within a year before the wedding. I’m getting married in May so I haven’t met with the musician yet to pick songs. Good luck and congratulations!

I am also having a Catholic wedding. Our Mass is also at 2. Like PP mentioned, i am also taking family pictures right after mass. After FH and i will be going somewhere to take pictures. The reception will start at 530 and we will show up around 6pm. We are doing our pre cena next month. As long a we do it before the wedding, we are good. As for readings, i found a website that has suggested readings. You can google it, thats what i did. For music, i hired these 2 sisters that sing so beautifully. I still need to meet with them and plan the music they should play. But it's not as bad a it looks. I say meet with your priest or talk to the church secretary for more information.

Most of our cousins have had catholic weddings and have had hours between the ceremony and reception when it's that close. A cocktail hour also tends to make it feel like less time! We never have had any issues or heard any complaints at anyone's wedding! Whatever you choose will be perfect, don't worry!

We didn’t do a full mass, so our ceremony only lasted25 min. We started at 2:30 so our end time will be about the same. Our reception was 25 min away. Cocktail hr was from 3:45-5 we entered just after 5. Did our first dance, my dad gave his speech, and dinner was around 5:30. It was a perfect time line. We got all our individual pictures done before the ceremony and all the big family pictures and with both of us after it was plenty of time for pictures.
I was allowed the bridal march and since we didn’t have a mass, I didn’t have to choose any other songs. My priest gave me a book to select which readings we wanted.
We got married in January and did pre cana over the summer.

We’re having a catholic wedding, but not a full mass. So our mass will be from 2:30-3:30 and then we’re planning our cocktail hour for 4:30-5:30 and then we’re going to arrive at 5:45. It was hard for us because our reception is over an hour away from FHs parish so we had to try and find a different Catholic Church that is closer. Most that were close to our venue wouldn’t allow us to get married there because we aren’t parish members, and FHs priest wouldn’t marry us off site. The closest church we could find is a historic polish church that is about 35 minutes away from our reception. Not ideal in distance, but the church is gorgeous and we have both been there several times. It holds a lot of significance for FH, even more so than his actual parish. We are doing precana 6 months before the wedding, the the parish coordinator told us that they will handle it all from their end. For readings, were going to have is grandfather read and my Godfather. It’s so hard to decide but for readings we will probably do Song of Solomon and maybe 1 Cor. We might also do an excerpt from the book the Alchemist or a nice poem.

Sorry for a second post lol but I forgot to add this! My sister also had a catholic wedding and had a 4 hour block between the ceremony and the reception. Most of her attendants were catholic, so this was something they are all used to when it comes to weddings. I actually just learned through WW that blocks are mainly a catholic Wedding thing because they’ve had one at all the weddings I’ve been to! However, me and FH are not doing a block, because most of our guests are not catholic and It would be seen as rude or inconvenient to these attendants who are not. Also because our venue is so far from the church, it would seem extra inconvenient. We will most likely pay the venue $300 to extend the time for 30 minutes to make it end at 11:00. I think the makeup of the attendants is very important when deciding if you’re going to do a block or not! Good luck

View Quoted Comment Oh interesting! What do you mean by a block?

Yay! I'm so glad you asked this! I am in the very beginning stages of planning for my Catholic wedding. We are just doing a ceremony, and looking for the reception venue outside of the church. The problem I'm running into is that there are only like 1 or 2 good venue options in my town, but if people are willing to drive about 30 min, then we may be able to find something else. My FH (who is not Catholic) and I have our first meeting with the priest on Dec 16th, so I'm guessing that is when we'll find out about all of the pre-cana stuff. I haven't even started looking at songs or readings yet...

View Quoted Comment Well my sisters wedding was 1-2 and her ceremony was at 5. So people had to find something to do for those 3 hours!

We are having a Catholic wedding (no mass) at 1:30 p.m. Should last until 2:15 and then it'll be about 2:30 by the time everyone exits (big wedding). Cocktail hour is at our venue (20 min away) from 3:00 - 5:00. Dinner at 5:30. We are doing pre-cana next month and our wedding is August.

So we are also having a Catholic Wedding (not mass). I am not catholic but FH is. Our priest prefers to do weddings after Saturday mass (which is at 4) not before (since that would make ceremony at 1). So our ceremony will be at 5:30 (about 20min long). Our reception is literally 5 minutes away. We will do all our pictures before the wedding and reception will start at approximately 6:30.

We are starting with National Family planning class. We have our first one tomorrow (our wedding is in June) . Our priest has told us after we meet with the NFP lady, we will begin our pre-cana with a couple at the church. So I am assuming that will start some time in January.

We are doing a Catholic wedding and plan to have our full mass ceremony at 1:30-2:30?, cocktail (1/2) hour at 4:30 and be introduced at 5 with dinner following shortly after.
Our reception is just as close to our church as yours, but hotels are a 10 min drive and most guests will be OOT, so we’ve hired a school bus (cheapest option) to bring guests to the church, back to the hotel/downtown area for the gap, and back to the reception venue.
Our musician offered music suggestions but we haven’t picked yet (8/1 wedding).
We meet with our priest next week for the first time, but we also have a weekend retreat scheduled in March or April, which I believe is most of the pre-Cana stuff.

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We also had the issue of no good venues near the church. Our venue is 20 mins away (without traffic) but it's across the city so could take upwards of 40 minutes. But it is what it is, you've gotta love your venue

Idk if this will help anyone, but I found it helpful:
http://catholicweddinghelp.com/index.htm

We are doing a Catholic Scripture service because my fiancé isn’t religious. The church we wanted only had 12pm or 6pm available when we booked so we had to pick the earlier time. With the ceremony ending by 1, people will have 5 hours to do stuff. Our reception space is about 10min from the church. Fortunately, Detroit isn’t far, people could golf, and we even considered having our guests meet us at a local brewery in between. The FH’s mom is worried about people drinking too much in between, but I’m not.y mom also plans to invite my side to her house for snacks and socializing. If I were you, Make a list of your recommended or favorite spots and give it to guests that stay at the hotel. I think people will understand

So glad I found this post!! I am having such a hard time deciding our timeline... We are getting married at 1:30 and it will be a full mass. I am going to ask my priest when we meet with him in 3 weeks how long his weddings usually are (he does Sunday mass usually quick). But I am assuming 1:30-2:30(ish) for the wedding. Then by the time we see guests and everyone heads out it will be like 3. Our reception is 30 minutes away. So I was thinking 4:00 cocktail hour? This gives guests to drop cars off at hotels or freshen up. (they are all right next door to our reception hall). We would get there about 5 for entrance. Then dinner at 6:00.

Does this sound right to everyone? Or should cocktail hour start at 4:30?! Thanks all!!!

View Quoted Comment I guess it depends on when and where you’re doing pictures. In my opinion it is better for the bride and groom to have more time in between so you aren’t as rushed. We also plan to do all our pics in between the ceremony (12pm) and the reception (6pm).

View Quoted Comment Any pictures we want in the church we have to do them before the ceremony because they have mass at 4!! Which stinks, but we don’t have a choice lol 😊

Little late to the party but we are having a full mass at 2 pm, our cocktail hour starts at 3:30 with wine and beer and light snacks. Apps come out at 4:30 as does hard liquor and dinner is at 5:30. We are having it all in the same area (church and then the hall is across the street). It was NOT ideal for me, but it kept my FH and my family happy so I compromised.

Hi! I am also a little late to the party lol. We are having a full Catholic Mass. It will start at 2 PM (but let's face it, weddings really don't end on time or end on time). Reception is 30 minutes away, and cocktail hour starts at 5 PM.

We did Pre-Cana back in October 2019, and we're getting married August 2020.

As for songs, I think I'm sticking with "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" for the moms and bridesmaids entrance, and "Canon in D" for me (or add this with bridesmaids because my church's aisle is really short..). For Presentation of the Gifts, I'm doing "Blest Are They", and Communion is "I Am The Bread Of Life" (Suzanne Toolan version). And we're using "The Lord Is Kind And Merciful" for Response Psalm and the Mass of Creation for the Mass parts.