Catholic ceremony

You have to start by recognizing that a Catholic ceremony outside of an actual church, unless you get a dispensation for it, will never be recognized by the Catholic church. So if recognition by the Catholic church is important to you, you'll need to bite the bullet and go through the red tape.

If it's not, your best bet is a priest who has left the Catholic ministry. There are some who have left, e.g., to get married, who will perform wedding ceremonies. You can check the "wedding officiants" tab under Vendors on this site, or do a Google search for former Catholic priest wedding and the name of your area.

My cousin didn't get married in the church and when she wanted to baptize her son, the church made her have a church ceremony before they would agree to the baptism. I've never heard of that before, but rules can vary depending on the diocese, I suppose. Like pp said, if you want recognition, you have to go through the right channels. We don't care, though his first wife initiated the annulment process, so depending on the outcome of that we may get married in the church. If not, we'll say whatever vows we work out with our officiant, but we'll include some traditional readings and songs, also.

My brother and SIL got married in the Catholic Church on a Wednesday and then had the same priest come out on Saturday and do a blessing outside their reception space. That’s the only way to really do it if you’d like to still have your marriage recognized by the Catholic Church

If you want a Catholic wedding, it has to be in the church and you have to follow their rules regarding pre-cana, ceremony times, etc. If the Catholic element is important, that's your only option. If you don't care about it being Catholic, then you can do whatever you want, wherever you want.

Have you spoken to your priest about it? I know there was a couple from our church that got prior permission to have a "catholic ceremony" on the beach. I'm not sure what the details were, just overheard it during pre-cana.

Also, we had friends that received the sacrament of marriage, but didn't have a full wedding mass because they wanted to get married in a beautiful (non-catholic) church in our city. Again, i don't know the details but I know it worked for them.

If you want to get married outside of the church but it still be accepted in the churches eyes you can ask the priest (ours is a family friend so we got lucky) but also a Deacon can preform a marriage ceremony as well. It is really their discretion.

It is incredibly rare to have a Catholic wedding (ceremony without Mass even) outside of a Catholic church. I've only heard of this happening once - when a Catholic woman married a Jehovah Witness man. His family would not step foot into a Catholic church and she had to get a dispensation from her pastor.

Getting married in the Catholic church you have options. You can celebrate matrimony with full Mass or without Mass. The ceremony without Mass takes about 30 minutes and is for couples where one is Catholic and the other isn't.

On another note, you could have a civil ceremony and later on have your union officially recognized by the Church - this is called convalidation of a marriage - however, it's (obvi) preferred by the Church that a couple celebrates the sacrament of matrimony the proper way.