Community› Cultural Wedding Boards› Interfaith Weddings
Interfaith Weddings
New Discussion

catholic church times

hyechica81hyechica81 member
First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment First Answer
edited June 2013 in Interfaith Weddings
so my fi is catholic and i am armenian christian orthodox he really wants to get married in his church so i said fine but when he went to book his church they said 1pm is the latest they can do a ceremony. i have been to catholic weddings in the past where the latest they could do a ceremony is like 2pm.. we have our venue at 7pm i am not even sure how long a catholic mass lasts. 

i also want my priest there to help officiate with his priest they can work the logistics out between both priests. 

i am thinking 1 hour ceremony starts 15 minutes late ends at 2:15 2:20-245 recieving line and people chit chatting that still leaves at 4 hours well 3/12 hours  not counting driving time to the reception venue.. that means people will have to drive home or find someplace to idle we have out of state guests so they would just go to the  hotel nearby but then we have guest who are local and live maybe 45 minutes from the church... 

i looked up his parishes times and they have 3:00 confessionals.. but they just merged with another church and that churchs confessionals are done at his church.. i was thinking maybe ceremony at that church at 2ish 

i know the catholics are really strict on ceremony times but they dont always cordinate with venues time slots. my church there is no cut off as we only have church  services on sunday... the wedding ceremony is like 45 to an hour  long  my only other option i was thinking of was having his priest do the tradtional catholic ceremony on us and then have my priest extened it for half hour and do the tradtional king and queen ceremony on us.


then my third option was to have his church hall rented out for our guests to mingle for a few hours have some coffee, water juice, and some light snack foods like cheese and crackers and veggies and dip nothing really heavy. but then they might get bored after 3 hours of sitting around 


did anyone else have this issue and what did you do. i am thinking of calling my venue and seeing if i could have the room an hour earlier and pay them the extra whatever it will cost and instead of 12midnight having it end at 11 

Report Reply to Post

Re: catholic church times

  • Bird LadyBird Lady member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    First off, if your FI is a practicing Catholic, he has to get married in the Catholic church to be in good standing with the Church and continue receiving sacraments.

    Secondly, having a large gap between the ceremony and the reception is rude to your guests, both the ones in and out of town. If 1pm is the latest the church can do the ceremony, then you can approximate roughly an hour or so (if you are doing a full mass) and a few extra minutes to do the receiving line. Your reception should start closer to the 2:30-3pm mark depending on how long it takes to get from the church to the reception venue. Renting out a hall and doing a three hour "cocktail hour" would very likely cause many of your guests to leave before the reception even started.

    Please consider the comfort of all your guests and don't have them wander on their own for a few hours just because you want an evening party. People will be happier and you will still have an awesome party, regardless of the time of day. 

    Hope everything works out!
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards