JP vs. Church ceremony

I found it really easy to tell FMIL we weren't getting married in the church because A) I wanted my ceremony outside and B) I am catholic. So in order to FH to get married with me he would need to go through all the classes as well as the marriage classes before they allow us to be married. She didn't want him

To have to do that.

What about a cousin, or a friend, getting ordained online, and doing a service with slightly religious undertones?

^ I think if they are really religious they will HATE that idea.

It's not like you're just getting a title of officiant like you do online. But even as someone who isn't super religious, I feel like if someone wants you to have a church ceremony and someone just gets ordained online it's kind of a mockery of the church because they don't have to go through all the training you're supposed to get. It's kind of totally cheating te system.

A JP could definitely do a ceremony with religious readings thrown in.

Thats true, a JP could. I just thought it might be a way to make it more personal for the couple, as well. I don't find it to be a mockery by any means, and I'm a religious person. I find it to be a great way to put a personalized touch on a ceremony, and possibly bring the two sides together. If one is religious and one is not, then a happy medium should be found. My fiance is Catholic, and I'm Lutheran. We decided to get married in a Lutheran church, with a very traditional, old school, Lutheran ceremony, which is very close to Catholic ceremonies. I didn't want to exclude my family with a mass (I will be converting afterwards for children), and we didn't want to exclude his family with a contemporary service.

FH is a part of a church but we agreed that we don't like the preacher there so that cancelled out the church for us. That is fine with us as we wanted an outdoor ceremony anyways. Our ceremony will be in our front yard with recetion in backyard but FH knows of another preacher that he wants to marry us. We will be visiting his church in 2 weeks so I can meet him and we can ask him to do it for us.

I say use the preacher from FH's family church to do it at your home.

Samantha, what about finding a real minister (maybe non-denominational) who would could to your venue?

Other alternative is to ask if your civil officiant is able to include a prayer, blessing, or Bible reading.

Both of our parents know we don't go to church. My mom wanted us to get married in the church, but we aren't practicing Catholics, so we didn't feel the need to go through all the pre-cana stuff. We are doing JOP, lol.