Catholic Ceremonies in DC/northern VA

Or just get Married in DC at st Matthews and make everyone drive the hour back out to Gainesville for the reception. We are expecting 180 people so I think renting 3 (50 person) shuttles would be too expensive even for 4 hours.

Perhaps you can ask your local priest in DC if he can help find you an appropriate church in NOVA. Maybe they will make an exception to the parishioner rule if your priest contacts them instead of you.

I went through the same thing. We are parishioners at St Charles in Arlington. Our reception is in Warrenton, about 45 minutes away (and who knows what traffic could be like). We tried to book the church in Warrenton, and would have but they only had a morning ceremony. Every other church (ones in Fairfax, Gainesville, Centreville, Manassas) had a rule about parishioners only. So we ended up staying with St Charles. Plus, our priest doesn't have any rules about modest dress, etc.

I hate asking people to drive that far, but it was the only option for us. And if some skip the ceremony, well, it's okay.

Maybe you could have a private church ceremony at St Matthews, and do a civil ceremony at your reception? Or just have the reception open to all guests, not worry about the civil.

And you're right about renting charter buses, that would easily cost you about $3-4k if my estimates are about the same.

Thanks for the responses. Yes a full mass Catholic wedding is very important to us.

My friend is catholic and for the exact same reasons (dress and living together) they stuck with their local church and asked the guests to make the drive from Bowie to their venue across the bay bridge in Annapolis . It'll be like A 45 min drive with a four hour gap. Not ideal but had to be done I guess

Yes, good idea @Goldfisch and @Kate! OP, look into a Bolero/shoulder covering. Then you can have a pretty yet modest covering for the ceremony, and remove for the reception.

I've had friends get married at St John Neumann in Reston and at St Veronica's in Chantilly without being members or their parents being members. At St Veronica's they were lax about the strap rule. I think they required some sort of strap but one of the bridesmaid's literally had a tiny spaghetti strap on one shoulder and that counted.

That's good to know. I'm not as concerned about my dress but I don't like the idea of bridesmaids wearing shawls- it just doesn't look good. There are high neck thick tank bridesmaid dresses but I will just have to meet with them next week and see what they say in person.