Questions to ask priest

Chloeagh

So, as I posted earlier, FI and I recently had our first meeting with the priest. It was mostly business since we won't start planning the actual ceremony for another year. However, of course, we immediately came up with a bunch of questions to ask. I don't want to be annoying and constantly call him with questions, so FI and I are making a list of time sensitive questions and I was looking for input on if we're missing anything.

Here's what we've come up with:
What times are available for the ceremony? How long is it expected to last?
Can we use (insert family friend) for the music?
What instruments are available?

erin5286

I can't think of any other questions that you would need to ask now, since you mentioned you won't be planning the ceremony for awhile, the only thing you probably need to figure out now is the ceremony time.

Before asking too many music-specific questions, I would suggest first asking if there is a music director at your church or someone else who would be in charge of music/instruments - for us, our priest wasn't involved in any of that, we planned all our music with the parish's organist/music director, the only thing we had to do was OK with our priest that our cantor would lead the responsorial psalm from the front (since he was also our reader) rather than from the choir loft like they usually do during Mass.

bibliophile2010

In addition to the music director for music questions, ask if they have some sort of wedding coordinator. Often, there is someone in charge of stuff for weddings (opening up, serving as sacristan, etc) who can probably answer lots of your questions without bugging the priest.

Chloeagh

Thanks for the suggestions, but to my knowledge, it's just the priest. On the website, there is no information regarding weddings at all (as opposed to the minimum "contact this person this many months before" I see on other church websites) and the music page lists the priest as the one who coordinates things. When I requested information from the secretary, the priest sent me a one-page information sheet himself and told me to call him with questions. As far as I can tell, besides the couple we do the FOCCUS with, the priest is who we talk to through the whole thing.

Chloeagh

No, we don't. We were suppose to in order to take care of some issue FI had, but he's taking care of that at his church instead. He has to call the priest to let him know, so we figured he'd just ask the priest when he did that.

lalaith50

You won't start planning the wedding for another year? So you're wedding is in 1.5-2 years? I think that you could call and ask the secretary (or priest when you make the next  appointment) what times weddings are held at, but I think you should leave any music-related questions until you actually start planning. (I guess I can't fathom why you would want to start planning any music when your wedding is still relatively far away.)

Chloeagh

We don't want to plan music, we just want basic information about what is allowed and what is available so that, if it's okay, we can talk to the person we want to do the music. If we wait until 5 months out to ask, they might be booked for that weekend.

agapecarrie

I understand wanting to make sure you can use a certain person for music, but beyond that, I wouldn't ask more ceremony questions. 

Ask marriage prep questions:

How can we best prepare? besides the requirements, what else can we do? do you recommend any prayers? spiritual directors? etc