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Any Catholic Military Brides?

afrenchprincessafrenchprincess
First Comment First Anniversary
in Military Brides
Hello Militay Brides!
I don't post on this board as I am not a military bride. However, I was wondering if there were any Catholic military brides? Becaue my fiance is overseas and I am Catholic and really wanting to have a Catholic wedding in my church. However, the fiance visa through the U.S requires that once he arrives we must marry within 90 days and there is 6 month marriage preparation period for the Catholic church. Obviously, we can not do that. I am wondering have any of you tried to get married or know of anybody that may have been trying to get married within the Catholic church before deployment or other military circumstances? I have heard that people in the military have gotten exceptiosn to the Catholic marriage prep in certain situations. I am just trying to see what you all did.
Thanks so much for the help!
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Re: Any Catholic Military Brides?

  • firsttimersluckfirsttimersluck member
    5 Love Its Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    Nope :/ Sorry... I know a few wives that had a Catholic wedding and all they talk about is how horribly painful the process was with all the classes and whatnot.. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I wish you the best with the wedding planning!

    If you look to your left under "Cultural Wedding Boards" there is a Catholic Weddings board... If you have no help here, that may be a great place to check as well.
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  • kara811kara811 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    It really depends on the priest and the church's rules you want to get married at. I really wanted a Catholic church wedding as well but it was just not possible with H being stationed overseas and being on deployment for months at a time. My church was strict with pre cana. 

    We still had a great wedding even if it wasn't in church. We chose to have a mix of religious and civil ceremonies and a reverend performed it so we still had a lot of the elements that we would have had in a chuch wedding. HTH. 
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  • Beachy730Beachy730 member
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    We got married in a Catholic church. Our church required 2 meetings with the priest and 1 day long pre-cana class. It wasn't a pain at all and we actually enjoyed it. Talk to your church and priest about your options. It might come down to you finding a different church. Some priests are great and will do classes and meetings via skype, so just call around.
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  • IrishcurlsIrishcurls member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_catholic-military-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:13Discussion:71b3b8bc-5689-4f12-8404-7ff9c35bd5f6Post:710846c0-a654-4ee7-ac79-3ccd14a5d618">Re: Any Catholic Military Brides?</a>:
    [QUOTE]We got married in a Catholic church. Our church required 2 meetings with the priest and 1 day long pre-cana class. It wasn't a pain at all and we actually enjoyed it. Talk to your church and priest about your options. It might come down to you finding a different church. Some priests are great and will do classes and meetings via skype, so just call around.
    Posted by dnbeach12[/QUOTE]
    Yup, we had three meetings but we loved it too. 
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  • TeamBabyTeamBaby
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_catholic-military-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:13Discussion:71b3b8bc-5689-4f12-8404-7ff9c35bd5f6Post:710846c0-a654-4ee7-ac79-3ccd14a5d618">Re: Any Catholic Military Brides?</a>:
    [QUOTE]<strong>We got married in a Catholic church. Our church required 2 meetings with the priest and 1 day long pre-cana class. It wasn't a pain at all and we actually enjoyed it</strong>. Talk to your church and priest about your options. It might come down to you finding a different church. Some priests are great and will do classes and meetings via skype, so just call around.
    Posted by dnbeach12[/QUOTE]

    Same for us.  :)
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  • calindicalindi member
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    My friend is in the exact same situation - she's engaged to a Brit who literally just got his fiance visa and they're getting married in 3 weeks or so.

    They went to her church here in the US and spoke to them about it, and they allowed them to do the Pre-Cana classes via Skype while he was in the UK (because they're not allowed to come over until they're granted the visa, right?  Stupid immigration laws).  They finished up well before the fiance visa was granted, and then once he got the "go", they called the church and booked a day 80 days away.  Sure, it's REALLY short notice, and it will be a challenge to plan a wedding in that time frame, but what she did is this:

    She interviewed all the vendors of her choosing and had a "top 5" list for each category that was in their budget (photographer, videographer, florist, DJ, and caterer).  She had already bought the bridesmaids dresses and attire for bride/groom and had the groomsmen already get their sizes in at Men's Warehouse so all she had to do was call in the date of the rental as soon as she knew.  Once they got the fiance visa, they booked the church, then immediately called the vendors in their preferred order to see if any were still available for that day.  They got at least one of their top 5 choices in each category.

    They printed the invitations at home and had everything else all assembled (including the envelopes addressed) so all they had to do was click "print" and then they could mail them out.  Everyone had gotten a "save the date" type email that explained that they couldn't set a date but to be prepared for a last minute invitation.

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  • afrenchprincessafrenchprincess
    First Comment First Anniversary
    edited December 2011
    calindi Thanks so much for that GREAT INFORMATION! Whew! That is what I am planning on doing and knowing that there IS an option for skype and alternative ways is so rephreshing! I am super excited about that! Thanks so much and I would love to know how your friend's wedding turned out. And yeah they (fiance) can't come over until the the visa to marry is approved.
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  • calindicalindi member
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    The Skype thing was all their priest - I think they have a young priest who is totally "with it" on the technology front.  It will depend a lot on you talking to your priest and figuring out something that works.  It's possible, though!

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  • shan87shan87
    Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Our church allowed us to take Pre Cana in another state and he met with us over thanksgiving and christmas for the 2 meetings. He was willing to do Skype but it worked out for us that we didn't need to.

    My Cousin and his wife were allowed to just fill out a booklet (given to them by the same  Priest as us).

    Calindi gave a great example, but I just wanted to let you know that some Priest are very flexible. 
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  • divinemsbeedivinemsbee member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Wow, didn't realize there were so many Catholic or married-to-a-Catholic girls on this board! Basically, you need to talk to your priest. As Cal said, some are more willing to work with you than others. Especially if it's a parish you've been with a while and a priest you know pretty well, they tend to work with you. Right now I'm planning to be married in my home church in my hometown, but live about 4 hours away (and could be much farther away by the time of the wedding). We're doing most of our pre-Cana through my (FI isn't Catholic) church here, but also meeting with the priest who will perform the ceremony at least one weekend. Do I think a lot of their willingness to work with us stems from FI's job? Probably.  But then you have instances like Kara where the priest won't budge, so I'd go ahead and start talking to people.

    I would check out the Catholic board, and Good Luck!

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  • IrishcurlsIrishcurls member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_catholic-military-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:13Discussion:71b3b8bc-5689-4f12-8404-7ff9c35bd5f6Post:cf55aa2b-7684-4291-9291-cdb126cd7b3d">Re: Any Catholic Military Brides?</a>:
    [QUOTE]Wow, didn't realize there were so many Catholic or married-to-a-Catholic girls on this board! Basically, you need to talk to your priest. As Cal said, some are more willing to work with you than others. Especially if it's a parish you've been with a while and a priest you know pretty well, they tend to work with you. Right now I'm planning to be married in my home church in my hometown, but live about 4 hours away (and could be much farther away by the time of the wedding). <strong>We're doing most of our pre-Cana through my (FI isn't Catholic) church here, but also meeting with the priest who will perform the ceremony at least one weekend. Do I think a lot of their willingness to work with us stems from FI's job? Probably. </strong> But then you have instances like Kara where the priest won't budge, so I'd go ahead and start talking to people. I would check out the Catholic board, and Good Luck!
    Posted by divinemsbee[/QUOTE]
    I'm not disagreeing with you, but it's pretty common to get married out of state--so we did all pre-cana through my parish here, and got married in my church back home in CT. We just contacted the CT church to book everything and they just needed our certificate from the MD church; they didnt even know H was military. I just wanted to get married at home.
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  • shan87shan87
    Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_catholic-military-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:13Discussion:71b3b8bc-5689-4f12-8404-7ff9c35bd5f6Post:768d044c-3eb7-43e1-b92c-74bc519c2888">Re: Any Catholic Military Brides?</a>:
    [QUOTE]In Response to Re: Any Catholic Military Brides? : I'm not disagreeing with you, but it's pretty common to get married out of state--so we did all pre-cana through my parish here, and got married in my church back home in CT. We just contacted the CT church to book everything and they just needed our certificate from the MD church; they didnt even know H was military. I just wanted to get married at home.
    Posted by Irishcurls[/QUOTE]

    We also did this. We did our Pre-Cana in Oklahoma but got married in Minnesota. I just contacted the OK Arch Diocese, our priest just needed a copy of the certificate and the class discription.
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  • emilye1227emilye1227
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    It all depends on the priest. We hopefully will have no problems with deployments or anything before our wedding, but the priest was more than willing to work with us to speed things up if necessary. My FI and I also currently live 2 hours apart and several hours from the church, which is in m home town, and the priest said we could do it through another church if there was one that would work better locationwise for us. Best of luck!
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