Officiant help

Definitely use WeddingWire as a resource! Try looking at officiants on here, or google them in your area. Good luck!

See if a Catholic Deacon is available to conduct the ceremony.

View Quoted Comment I never thought of that. I assumed they couldn’t do it outside of a church.

View Quoted Comment Thanks but I’ve looked and there’s nobody in my area I’m interested in.

View Quoted Comment Each area has its own rules but there's no harm in asking. Occasionally a priest will do an outside ceremony too.

Currently there are only two archdioceses that allow Catholic ceremonies outside a church (Montana and Baltimore) but you should be able to get an officiant of a different denomination to officiate outside a church

My fh is divorced and we can’t get married in the Catholic church but I always wanted a church wedding. I found a priest from the independent Catholic Church. He welcomes all gay, divorced etc. and will marry us at our venue. It is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as a sacrament so according to their rules I won’t be married but we will be legally married. The ceremony will have the religious feeling that I find comforting.

Maybe look at a nondenominational (Christian) church or churches in the area. Plenty can or will conduct a ceremony outside an actual church. You could also simply incorporate bible reading by the wedding party during the ceremony.

The thing to remember is that's it's your wedding. I"m sure your mom means well, but if it's not what you or your fiancee want don't give in. My fiancee wanted a church wedding even though we don't go to church. I had a heck of a time finding one to marry non-members that didn't a huge fee. I found an officiant here on WW who is an actual minister, not just someone ordained and we agreed on him and getting married at the same place as our venue. It's a cost savings too.

As my mom would say, "who's paying?"
😅

I know it’s your wedding but sometime with moms it’s so hard for them to understand that simple concept. Just because you grew up catholic and your mom prefers you to marry in a church doesn’t mean you should. Having an officiant in a non religious setting doesn’t make you any less of a Christian. I think you just need to talk to your mom and explain it to her and hope she respects your ideals. Good luck!

Our church (Catholic) wants 9-12 months of marriage counseling and wont even consider you if you live together. Maybe you can use that as an excuse to get her of your back? "Mom, that will require us to move the wedding back and we will lose all of our deposits. It's not happening". Could help shift the blame lol

Honestly, I would just have the ceremony that you want. I have kind of dealt with this myself, in that I was raised Catholic but no longer practice or identify as such. A lot of my family are still VERY religious and had expectations for our ceremony. I expressed to them that not being a practicing Catholic, it feels wrong and disrespectful to them to get married in the church. If that didn't work (and I will admit it got a little nastier every time they pushed on me) I went with There are just some things in the church that I take issue with and don't care to have my marriage associated with those things. And the harshest one I had to go with was Anyone who is okay with a non-religious person getting married in their church (especially when the couple has no intention of becoming religious) is only religious for social status and not for a deeply held belief and I would not have my marriage put on display to improve their standing in their social group...after that, people stopped pushing me and, (maybe I am lucky here) I still have a good relationship with all of them.