Christian Weddings

Greek Orthodox/Catholic Wedding - Bending the rules with the bridal party?

I'm baptized into the Greek Orthodox faith, he's baptized Catholic. He is perfectly willing to have our ceremony in a Greek Orthodox church, with every Greek Orthodox tradition that goes along in a typical G.O wedding. He is also supportive in raising our children in the G.O faith.
We are still in the planning stages of our bridal party, we do know it will be quite big. He has every intention on asking my brothers to be a groomsmen among the rest of his non G.O. friends. He also intends on asking a childhood friend (not a G.O.) to be his Best Man (who I believe is Catholic). I am still deciding who my Maid of Honor will be, and it may very likely (ideally) be an old friend who is of the Catholic faith. The problem is, Greek Orthodox tradition is very strict on having a Greek Orthodox be the "sponsor" (or Maid of Honor/Best Man) for the wedding.
Any other Brides in a similar situation, or was, and worked something out? I know he could very well ask one of my brothers to be Best Man, but I dont think thats very fair for him. I also envisioned my very best friend as my Maid of Honor, and I would rather not compromise on this.

Re: Greek Orthodox/Catholic Wedding - Bending the rules with the bridal party?

  • I'm non grata

    What aspects of the BM/MOH "duties" are important to you that these people carry out? I know that at least the best man has special actions in a GO wedding. Is it important to you that this Roman Catholic do those actions, or just that these people have the titles of "best man" and "maid of honor"?

    If it's just the titles, you could choose GO sponsors for what the GO church requires, and give them their proper Greek titles, and have the others as BM/MOH.
  • I'm Greek Orthodox.  What we did is have a maid of honor and a best man who were not Orthodox, and they had the secular responsibilities, like giving the toast at the reception.  We then had a separate koumbaros who was Orthodox to do the religious duties.  My priest was actually quite flexible, and he let all three of them walk around the alter, even though the koumbaros held the crowns.  So we ended up having the best man, maid of honor, and koumbaros standing off a bit separate from the bridal party, and it actually looked good.
  •  I am Russian Orthodox. I got the ok from our priest to have a non-Orthodox BM.  It worked out fine.  If you can't get approval I would do what Gjones said, split it up.  I would use a Godparent. 

    "Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained"-C.S. Lewis

    Married! May 27th, 2012

  • Yes, I was considering having a koumbaros/koumbara and bm/moh, but I wasnt sure how that would look. Its not so much of the duties of a bm/moh that are important to me or my fiance, but more of choosing the people for our bm/moh that we grew up with and placed up beside us at the altar when we dreamt about our wedding.

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