My FI is Catholic and I'm Christian and we decided long ago we wanted to be married outdoors. We wanted a natural (and neutral) location where both sides of our families felt comfortable. Only recently while talking to local priests have we discovered the Catholic Church no longer allows outdoor ceremonies unless a Mass has been performed there already. Your priest used to be able to ask permission to perform outdoor ceremonies, but the Church has gotten more strict on this, so its rare a priest will advocate on your behalf on this issue.
I have heard that we can hold a small private wedding ceremony at his Church with only a few people (parents) and then hold a larger ceremony. We would most likely just have a Justice of the Peace perform the outdoor ceremony, so as not to interfere with the Catholic "2 ceremony" issue.
Has anyone heard of this process before? Any details on how it worked out? And please, refrain from any religious condescension, I found some of the other replies on similar posts pretty rude and I'm not interested in that.
Thanks for any help!
