I'm Catholic but my Fiancé isn't and we want an outdoor ceremony

You can have your official wedding at the church the day before with the families as it will be easier and very intimate. This way its done as your parents would feel happy its to their satisfaction. The officiant can marry you the next day without the signatures and witnessess coming up. Consider the thought of having your wedding bands put back in the ring cases so that you both will have to put it on each other again in front of all the guests. There are always ways to get around situations.

View quoted message

@Ashley yeah we would be fine with that , where we would have the witness and signing of the documents at the church.
I know it wouldn't be the ceremony. I would just like it to be walking down the aisle and then some readings with a talk from the officiant .

So not sure if that is allowed.

View quoted message

Yes but you would technically be married the day before and you would need witness'. then on the second day it would be just readings or whatever. it wouldnt be the whole ceremony again (i hope this makes sense?)

View quoted message My guess is it comes down to interpretation of canon law. Or, perhaps more likely, lack of transparency from the couple.

View quoted message

Yeah its quite interesting on how some people were allowed to do the two ceremonies and then others weren't. So im confused on why its allowed sometimes but not all the time.

View quoted message

So if we had a church wedding the day before and then hired a catholic officiant for our day we are able to incorporate bible readings in the ceremony?
I know where pastors did the outdoor ceremony and it included a few readings

View quoted message It's all comes down to canon law. I think it would be interpreted as having more than one ceremony for the same marriage which would be contrary to Canon 1127, 3. And incorporating religion or God into the non-Catholic ceremony actually makes it worse as far as Canon law goes.
(I was raised Catholic, left the church, but find canon law fascinating. Just trying to provide information so you know what you're up against)

You wont be able to do that in the catholic religion theyre pretty strict. what you can do is hire a officiant that is catholic and willing to travel to your outdoor ceremony!

View quoted message

Im completely fine with that option, but then again I talked to some people and they said it wouldn't be allowed because its saying that the first church ceremony isn't good enough. Which I don't understand at all. Im meeting with the priest on Monday and hopefully we can get clarity on this matter. I don't see why it would be a problem for us to have one one day and the other another time. My FH is compromising with saying he will do the church ceremony the day before or another day. I've come to realize that some Christians compromise for their Catholic partners but then catholism wont compromise the other way.
If for some reason the church says no to the two ceremonies, my FH and myself said we will go with the outdoor ceremony cause that's us.
I know ultimately it is our wedding and we are paying for it, so I believe having an outdoor ceremony incorporating God into it wouldn't be bad at all. This whole thing is making me stressful.

Convalidation! That's the term I couldnt remember!

I don't know that it's "not allowed", but my understanding of the Catholic church is they would likely not agree to a small ceremony with them and then a "real" ceremony. They would expect to be the real ceremony. Similarly, they don't tend to like "private" wedding ceremonies.
Keep in mind that there is a rather extensive wedding course you need to take in order to be married in the Catholic church.
One option might be to have your mountain ceremony and then approach your priest to have it (I can't remember the term- essentially recognized by the church) if that is important to you.

It's allowed - but like Kelsie said, it would be the legal marriage in the church and the "for-show" type of ceremony on your "wedding day". Technically your anniversary would just be the day before but you can celebrate your anniversary whichever day you feel is the day you got married.

I think it’s allowed...you won’t be able to sign the marriage certificate at your outdoor ceremony because it’ll already be done the day before.


But you can have a secular outdoor ceremony after you’ve been married in a church. I don’t see why that would be an issue. Maybe people are just saying that because they want you to have your actual ceremony in the church?