Convalidation invitations?

DeBo130

So after five years of "legal marriage," my husband and I have decided to have our marriage blessed in the eyes of the Catholic Church at the end of this year (not really to be mistaken with a vow renewal as according to our priest this will be a regular nuptial ceremony since our marriage was seen as invalid.). The ceremony itself will be very similar to a wedding ceremony and consist of a Mass, a homily, our vows to each other (which we will tweak a little saying "I promise to continue..." rather than the vows we took at the courthouse), my Filipino wedding traditions, and the blessing (instead of exchanging) of the rings.

Anyway, here is my question:
We will be inviting family and friends to our ceremony and small reception afterwards so I wanted to know how to best word these invitations. My husband's entire side of the family is non-Catholic so I wanted to make this as understandable as possible. I didn't want them to misinterpret this as a second wedding or anything like that.

agapecarrie

Please do not change the vows, or else it will still be considered invalid.

Calypso1977

ditto agape.

you actually ARE getting married for the first time, according to teh church.  the vows must be of proper form.   your priest wont allow any changes (and if he does, you should find another one).

as far as the invitations go, i personally wouldnt issue formal ones at least for the convalidation.  id send out invitations to the reception for headcount purposes, and then inform people of the convalidation.  personally, id only have my parents and my children (if i had them) present at the convalidation but to each his own.

at any rates, congrats on coming back into the church!!

bibliophile2010

Just make sure the invitations match the formality of the event. You're receiving a sacrament! That's good reason to celebrate!

I would say something like:

You and H
request the honor of your presence
at the nuptial mass where we will [verb] our marriage
in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony

The verb could be "bless" or "sanctify" or something else that seems appropriate. It's not perfect, but I think it conveys the message that you are making your legal marriage good with the Church. I'd probably spread the info on what you are doing by word of mouth in advance anyway, so people, especially those who are not well-catechized Catholics, know what's going on.

professorscience

I agree with Bibli.  It is a reason to celebrate!

FYI, when you do a vow renewal, you repeat the same vows you did when you were married.  I don't think there's any NEED to change the vows.  It's not like people will think you WEREN'T upholding those vows in the first five years.

DeBo130

Thank you everyone so much for your input! And thank you bibliophile. Your suggestion was really helpful. Now I know how to start. I think I may just use your words. We are so excited for this day. Due to certain circumstances in both of our lives, we never had the opportunity to do this and finally share our day with family and friends. We got married so quickly at the courthouse that we had no witnesses at all. And soon after that, we couldn't shake our guilt of not being wed in our Church. This has been 5 years WAYYY overdue.