Catholic Church in Northern VA/MD/DC area

grigglm

Hello - My fiance and I are currently searching for a beautiful Catholic church within the Northern VA/MD/DC area.  We have found some but they all seem to require that you are within their boundaries or are a member of the church. We like the catholic churches we belong to but would prefer a church that is a little more "wow" than our hometown churches.Many thanks in advance for your suggestions!

vitamint

Good luck! We also tried but ultimately decided not to get married in the Catholic Church due to the number and types of hurdels we kept running into. FI is not Catholic and most NoVa Churches do require you live within the boundaries. Try the Catholic Board. There are some beautiful churches in DC and there is a Franciscan Monastary you could look at.

PressMe

Our Lady of Hope in Potomac Falls, VA is beautiful. I'm not sure of your date, but the parish requires that you are an active member three months before the six month pre-cana period.

mccabes

We seriously considered St. Peter's Church in Harpers Ferry, WV. It is about a 45 minute drive from Frederick, MD. You can't beat the view and the location. There were a lot of great reception venues available in Frederick, too. GL!

jenmcg

Holy Trinity in DC is lovely and I think they're flexible about where you live. But it's also a popular church so I don't know how far out you have to book it.

KatieintheCity

The Virginia churches are all in the Arlington Diocese which is really strict about boundary requirements. Churches in DC don't care where you live, but you do still have to be a member of the church. There aren't many churches (Catholic or not) that'll let you marry there without being a member. If you're set on a church, it'd probably do you well to just suck it up and join one. St. Matthew's Cathedral downtown is absolutely stunning. It's like stepping off a DC street into a European cathedral. St. Stephen's and St. Aloysius are nice as well, as is Holy Trinity in G'town.

lysandramarie

OK it's not Catholic but you can use the Universalist National Memorial on 16th St and bring your own priest.  It's really beautiful inside!

phenley2003

Hello- I just got married this weekend and between work and school, I barely had enough time to organize all the little details. When the wedding day came I still had several things to finalize. If I had to do it again I'd definitely welcome help. Check out this information below! This event may be able to assist you in finding find a church for your wedding.Best Wishes!Look No Further, Destination… Reception! Is Here To Solve Your Wedding Venue Woes. “Destination… Reception!” One Day to Find the Perfect Venue Washington, D.C., September 23, 2009—Esteemed wedding planner Vicky Johnson is determined to help local D.C. nearly weds find their wedding venue during a one day tour of some of the city’s most known unknown wedding locations on October 12, 2009. holy matrimony and Haute Minded Events, a division of holy matrimony, recently announced ‘Destination… Reception!’ The purpose of the city wide venue tour is to inform couples about wedding venues and most importantly to spark the interests of couples to host their weddings at a venue on the tour. “Finding the perfect wedding location is one of the biggest challenges for couples”, wedding extraordinaire, Vicky Johnson. ‘Destination… Reception!’ plans to take over 25 brides to 12 destinations that range in style, ambiance and price. The tour includes such exclusive venues such as O Street Mansion, Top of the Town, Union Station, Sequoia’s, and Hotel Palomar to name a few. At $40 per person, this tour not only gives attendees an exclusive 30 minute tour inside each venue, lunch that is fit for a king and queen, and a fantastic bridal bag that will be stuffed with exclusive goodies from Washington, D.C.’s elite list of wedding vendors.  In addition, Vicky Johnson of the Style Channel’s “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?” and her team will be there every step of the way to answer any wedding questions that have been nagging at your wedding train. This will certainly be an event that you won’t want to miss. For more information regarding ‘Destination… Reception!’ Please contact Lyndsey McFail at the aforementioned listing or visit DCNearlyWeds.com for more details.CONTACT: Lyndsey McFailholy matrimonyLyndsey@holymatrimonyonline.com; 410-988-5369

molsedotes

As most people said, the Diocese of Arlington (Northern VA area) churches are strict about you attending your local church. Diocese of Washington is more flexible on this. I'm getting married at St. Patrick (between Metro Center and Gallery Place), but I live in Arlington. It is gorgeous and the pastor there is great. But you do have to be a parishoner (register with the church) for at least 6 months before you can begin a discussion about getting married at the church. Then you need 6 month minimum for marriage prep (3 sessions w/ priest and engaged encounter retreat). But if you're willing to get married in a year or more, look into it. Beautiful church, nice area and great priests!

SLAHSarah

I fell in love with St. Raymond of Penafort in Springfield (just off the Ffx Co. Pkwy).  Fr. Gould is awesome and really goes out of his way to help service people (police, fire, emt, etc) get married in their church.  Ultimately, we did not chose this church because it was too far from our reception (45 mins south on 95 in the summer and no traffic).  But if I could plan differently, I would have used St. Rays and had a different reception venue. 

grigglm

Thank you all for your responses they have helped a lot. :-)molsedotes - My fiance has been looking into St. Matthews.  We both think it is an absolutely stunning church but I am concerned because it has no parking.  We will have (or hope to have) a lot of out of town guest.  How are you telling people to get to the church? by metro? or are you doing a shuttle service?

molsedotes

We're actually having our reception about 3 blocks from the church (church: St. Patrick's, and reception: City Club of Washington). We're paying a little extra to have the City Club open up their garage early (at 2:30 for the 3:00 ceremony even though the reception isn't until 5). So people can get into the garage and park, then walk to the church. We're also telling people it's metro and cab accessible. Hopefully that will work ok! (fingers crossed) Have you picked your reception site yet? Some hotels may also shuttle guests to the church if you block off rooms. That might be an option!

asha03

Where did you end up having your wedding?  I am looking into St. Matthew's now for my July wedding, but I am not a parishioner.  I don't know how flexible they are with that, but I will find out tomorrow when I call them.  The church is absolutely beautiful and I really would like to have my wedding there, so hopefully it won't be a problem and they will have availability.

meaghan6427

Out of curiosity, does St. Patrick's at least tell you if they have availability on your date / potential dates?  Or do they discuss nothing regarding weddings until the six months have passed?

Thanks so much!