problems with getting married in another church

unplainjane

i'm having problems getting married in a different catholic church that is not my local one. we are from toronto and we want to get married in niagara on the lake. we talked to our local priest and he said that he wouldn't transfer us to a different church to get married unless it's a church our family goes to. our family is not from niagara on the lake. so we're rather stuck right now.

have other people had experience getting married in a different church?

kwoschiz

I'm catholic too, but I decided not to bother with the catholic church as so many of my catholic friends had issues.  We are going with a high anglican church, which is almost exactly like the catholic mass.   If you want to be part of the catholic church, you can get married in whatever church you want, then ask your family priest to bless your marriage after.  20  min ceremony, and you get added to the catholic registry.  I might do the same.  My brother did it, as did a friend of mine, and it worked for them.  Best of luck.  I know how tough it is.

ring_pop

Have you actually talked to churches in Niagara? Is it THEIR requirement for you to get your priest to 'transfer' you? See if you can find a church that will be a little more lenient about letting you book a wedding there, without the blessing of your home pastor. Be prepared that this may mean doing your marriage prep there rather than at home.

Just out of curiosity, why are you getting married in NOTL? I'm just wondering if you can make a compelling case to your pastor, even if you don't have family there. I'm not saying it's wrong, just curious.

Anyway, if having a Catholic wedding is important to you, I would try to explore all options within the Catholic church before resorting to finding some other church or having a convalidation ceremony. I was always under the impression that it was actually pretty difficult to get dispensation for having your wedding elsewhere and then having the convalidation (i.e. blessing after the fact), but I suppose it differs from parish to parish. IMO it's a cop-out. An Anglican wedding may have almost the same mechanics of a Catholic wedding, but at the end of the day, it's not the same sacrament.

I understand that Catholic churches don't always make it easy to plan the ceremony, but this is the most important part of the wedding!

skrs10

Hey. I had a similar problem. We found a solution. I am getting on a Sunday because some of my guests cannot come if it is on a Saturday because of relgious reasons so we are having a mass the next day. You could have a civil service on the actual day if you cannot find a church and have a service later at your family church on a later date. I hope this helps.

theredskittle

I had this problem - they might write you a letter if the day that you want is all booked up with other weddings. THankfully, our home church (somehow miraculously) was all booked up on the date we wanted so our priest very reluctantly wrote us a letter for another church. 

princess0711

I had this exact problem except we are from Calgary getting married in Toronto

First you need to talk to the church in Niagra, then you need YOUR church in Toronto to fill out some forms (basically the interview and marriage prep courses) and forward them to the Niagra Church, hopefully that works!