Church vs. at the venue

If you dont practice at a church just get married at a venue. You might look for chapels that will let you marry no matter your faith. Good luck

For our wedding we plan to have a friend get his officiant license and have him marry us at the venue.

As a guest I find it easier if it's in one location because I only have to get to one place and find parking once. That's why I picked a venue where I could have the ceremony too.

FH and I are also both Catholic, but non-practicing. We chose to get married at our venue for various reasons. Neither of us feel extremely connected to either of our churches so we didn't feel like our ceremony would be personable if we got married in a church. Also, the latest in the day we could get married in the Catholic church would be 2:00 pm and with the reception not starting until 6:00 pm we didn't want our guests to have a huge gap in between.

In the end you need to decide what's best for you and FH, but for use it made more sense to get married at our venue.

My mom is not happy about us not getting married in a church. However, I don't feel confortable getting married in a church when we've already been living together for quite a while! We've chose a venue to do the ceremony and reception at the same location. It just seems a little false to me when neither of us are a part of a congregation and do not attend services regularly. I would say stick with the venue if it's morw comfortable for you and you don't want to wait

I say if the church is not important to you then get married at the venue. However, being Catholic I have never heard of the 6 month thing, but maybe it's a church by church basis. I'm getting married at my childhood church in Oregon but I live in Nashville. And even then I could have chosen any of the catholic churches here to get married in.

We were lucky and found a Catholic Church by our venue which you don't have to attend for 6 months. If you get lucky you might find one. If you have it at the venue maybe having readings or do something else to honor your belief.

I'm in Baltimore and where we are having our reception venue happens to have a chapel for catholic ceremonies only. We are catholic so it works out perfectly for us. If your interested check out the castle at maryvale. But just be aware its a historical building so there are restrictions on things like decorations.

I know that you can get married at the church we are having and not be members (St John The Evangelist in Severna Park) as well as one in Old Elicott City, St. Augustine I think its called. I don't know specifically about in Baltimore City. If you don't care about the church being in the city itself, those could be good options. I figure, we aren't really practicing either but its better to go this route now and then be able to have children be baptised in the church, etc without an additional headache.

Some churches allow non-members to marry. Contact churches in your area before you make a final decision about marrying in the venue.

We have the same thing. I'll be moving back to Maryland (B'more area) in a couple of months and one of the things I'll be looking at in a parish is how it looks (or will look) for our wedding

But yes, I've looked online at probably close to 10 churches, and ALL have the 6 month attendance thing. One even went so far as to say that if they don't get a check from you EVERY week in the collection plate, then that says you're not attending and they won't marry you. Needless to say, we are NOT choosing that one. That's a little too strict for me, even for a Catholic church.

But honestly, if you're not practicing, and it doesn't matter to you whether it's in a church or not, then there's no use trying to find one, no matter what Mom says. Good luck with whatever you find!!

FYI children can be baptized in the Church no matter how you get married. My brother is NOT Catholic, neither was his first wife. But their son together, and the 3 kids he has with his 2nd wife have all been baptized in the Catholic church. And he and his second wife did a JOP wedding, and she's Catholic.

If you do not want to get married in a church do it at the venue. However don't just pick the venue because you don't want to wait 6 months. I am doing my ceremony and reception at the venue (also in Baltimore...Museum of Industry) because I wanted the convenience of everything in one place...but a little part of me is now regretting not doing the ceremony in a nearby church. Think, think, think...what it is YOU really want.

Catrapoin, that's good to know. I've heard from friends about baptising kids and had a problem because they did not get married in a church, but that may just be that church was strict.

Could you ask the church if they'd marry you with the permission of your home church? We were able to get married at the church at Villanova University with permission from FH's home parish. Also, you could become a parishioner with the intention of getting married in the church and if in six months it doesn't work out (say your date is taken) use the reception venue as a back up plan?

We are both non denominational Christians that attend a church regularly. We decided to pick a venue that we could do both the ceremony and reception and we will be having a leader from our church officiate the wedding. I know it is not a "church" wedding per say but we feel we are getting what we want by having someone from the church marry us.

Just be aware that the Catholic church will rarely allow you to have a Catholic wedding outside of a church. And if both of you are Catholic, they will not recognize your marriage if it is not performed in a Catholic church, unless you go through convalidation. So if having your marriage recognized by the Catholic church is important to you, you may want to wait and have it at a church.

You need to do what feels right and what matters to you.

FH and I are practicing Catholics, and I can't imagine getting married anywhere, but in a church. If we had family members trying to convince us otherwise, I'd pretty much say no thank you.

I went to a wedding at the beginning of July and the ceremony and reception were in the same location. It felt awkward to me since people just kind of milled around the reception hall with nothing to do until the ceremony started. That was my only strike against having both in the same place. Couldn't beat the convenience.

Michelle- some priests and laypeople like to push for people to get married in the church, so they "emphasize" the importance of it, citing children's baptism as a reason for it, but they cannot NOT let you baptize your children in the church because of how you got married. NOT TRUE. And I would call out ANY priest, etc, who would try to tell me otherwise. The Catholic Church loves babies- they are a blessing no matter who the parents are and how they came into the world.

Catrapoin - I'm pretty sure I saw that same church as you did about the check thing... ugh. I told my mom that as a celebration of an anniversary maybe we could get re married in a church. (since my parents eloped and 10 days later got married in a church) We will still be doing our homework.. we keep going back and forth with the idea.

We're getting married at our venue. We'll have ushers escort people to the various tables and then march up to the dance floor. Then we party!