Duquesne Chapel? St Stanislaus?

arf3420

Is anyone having their wedding at either of these places? I'm still on the search to find an alternative ceremony location since the Catholic church I had chosen has restrictions on the music allowed.  My FI is a grad student at Duquesne, so we'd be able to use the chapel, which I hadn't even thought of until I saw it on the recommended vendor list.  They book three ceremonies per day, so I'm wondering if it's similar to Heinz Chapel. I've heard a lot of complaints about brides feeling rushed at Heinz.  Also, it appears to be Catholic.  Does anyone know if they have restrictions on music?  We want to have a string quartet play contempory songs instead of the traditional bridal march.  So far my searches have shown that is okay in any church except for Catholic ones.  
And St. Stanislaus... is it also Catholic?  Anyone know what kind of restrictions they have? 
I checked Smithfield United, but they're too far out of our price range.  First Baptist church marries non-members, and I was almost ready to go with that place until my mom pointed out that Baptist would not be appropriate... I hadn't even realized... lol.  Unfortunately, most churches have practically no info on their websites, so this search is hard!!  

jenice95

I am getting married at Duq Chapel and yes there are three ceremony times, 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm. You pretty much have an hour and a half, so depending on how long your ceremony is (full mass or not?) you should have plenty of time. A friend of mine had full mass and it was 50 minutes, leaving plenty of time for pictures. They do not allow a receiving line.

As far as the music, my booklet says you have to have it approved by the Director of Liturgy, but I'm not sure how strict they are. My priest recommended that we choose music of a religious nature, so it could depend on your officiant as well. Feel free to PM if you have other questions. HTH!

Try paging DuqCheer, she had her wedding there in Oct. Perhaps she has more insight. Not sure if she still drops in....

phillychica85

Just as an FYI, my wedding was at Heinz and I nor DH felt rushed. Yes, they do multiple weddings in the course of one day, but they have everything down to a T in terms of order and organization. I also had plenty of time for pictures after the ceremony. Like Jenice said, I'd assume it would be the same at a spot like D. Chapel.

And yes St. Stanislaus is Catholic. 

laurlaur414

St. Stanislaus is Catholic but if you are not a member of the parish you can only get married in time slot after 6pm (they save the earlier time slot for parish members only). You also have to bring your own priest.

Anne326

We are getting married at St. Stanislaus in 2 weeks. It is Catholic. We are getting married on a Friday and did not have any time restrictions. Our Mass is at 5:00pm. We did have to make arrangements to bring our own Priest which became an issue when my Parish Priest said that he would not perform our wedding mass. What we did was call the diocese and asked for a list of priest who would be willing to perform wedding masses. A few of the priests said no, but we ended up finding a wonderful priest who agreed to do the Mass at St. Stan's. We are so excited to have our wedding there! Good luck!

arf3420

Anne326 - Did St. Stan restrict the music choices that you were allowed?  We want to use contemporary music (string quartet playing Train "Marry Me", among other songs), and so far I haven't found any Catholic churches that allow secular music.  St Stan would be the perfect church for us since our reception will be at the Pittsburgh Opera House in the strip. 

First Baptist actually does have our date open now, they weren't sure before.  And they seem to be one of the more affordable ones who marry non-members, so I think we might go with them!

elizajane519

Heinz Chapel is non-denominational and they won't let you play secular music. There is a 0.01% chance you are going to find a Catholic Church that is going to let you use secular music.  You can't even get The Wedding March played in Catholic churches since it is from an opera and is secular. Are you or your fiance Catholic?
Maybe you should have the quartet play during your cocktail hour.

arf3420

We were both raised Catholic, but it doesn't matter to either of us what kind of church we're married in.  We would actually prefer that it isn't Catholic since they have so many crazy rules and restrictions on everything.  So far I've found about 10 churches that marry non-members and don't restrict music, but a couple don't have our date available and a few are just outrageously priced ($2-3k just to use their church, and that doesn't include the $700 it will cost for the music).   I think we've got it narrowed down to 3 churches now, one Lutheran, one Presbyterian and one Baptist, so we're just trying to figure out what we can fit into our budget.  We were hoping Duquesne Chapel might have worked since that would have saved a ton of money, but I think you're right that all Catholic churches are going to have the same rules.

teryan2321

I'm a cantor at my church and I've sung at several Catholic weddings. I have sung secular songs during weddings, it all depends on the song and the music director at the churgh. My music director will allow secular songs, as long as they are before the actual Mass starts and they are of a "prayerful nature." In fact, my music director is playing "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge at my wedding.(Very excited about that, by the way.)