Has anyone had any experience with having a Catholic Ceremony without the legal portion? I'm Catholic and my FI is not - he has never been baptized or anything. We already took a Pre-Cana class and have recently met with a priest to begin discussing our small ceremony plans. My FI is from NC and I'm from NJ, though we both live near Boston. Most of our friends, and his large family are located in NC and we fell in love with a reception venue down there. Our plan is to have a small Catholic Ceremony (just our parents/siblings) near Boston, then have a large civil ceremony/reception the following weekend in NC.
We haven't told our priest about this "second wedding" but I wonder if we should. It's important to me that our marriage is recognized by the church, but I want our wedding day in NC (with lots of guests and dancing) to be "our BIG day". Any ideas on this? I also realize we could simply have the wedding in NC, then get our marriage "Convalidated" by the Catholic church, but we already took the Pre Cana class and we want to plan this out the best way we can.
*Logistically we weren't able to have a Catholic ceremony in NC, right before our beautiful reception - long story but the closest Catholic church in the area won't do a wedding on a Sunday. Another important note is that this is the first marriage for both of us.
Any guidance is much appreciated!!