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Catholic Weddings
Inviting the Priest to the Reception?
Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some help regarding inviting the priest to the reception. I know this used to be pretty common, but I'm not sure if it's still done. I don't want the priest to feel obligated, but I don't want to insult him either. I also certainly don't want him to give a gift. We plan on giving him a gift for performing the ceremony. If he does come, who should he sit with? Is it okay to ask him to say a short blessing?
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Re: Inviting the Priest to the Reception?
We invited our minister. She came and did a blessing but declined the invitation to dinner. I think it is nice to invite them if they don't want to stay they will tell you.
I think your priest should feel comfortable saying "no, thank you" if he doesn't want to attend the reception. Maybe some are just more social than others and more likely to accept such an invitation. It might be nice to have him say a blessing unless you had someone else in mind. And I think at my brother's wedding they seated the priest with some other family friends. Don't know if any of this rambling is helpful.
If he comes, seat him with parishoners, but hopefully a range of age groups. Priests like to be social just like the rest of us.
our priest came to the RD and gave a nice blessing. he couldnt make the reception as he had to do a baptism.
he really enjoyed the nice meal out and we were so happy to do that for him.
Invite him, and do it with a formal, printed invitation like everyone else, so you can track his RSVP the same as everyone else, and so he has all the details. The only difference is you might hand him the invitation, or send it to him at the church, rather than to his home. And seat him with parishioners, or other Catholics, or at the parents' table.
There will be at least 2 Priests at my wedding, probably 3. My parish has all 3, and I know them about equally well. One we've asked to officiate at the vows, but I told all 3 they can flip a coin as to who is the chief celebrant of the Mass, for all I care. [There's canons and rubrics that make it a bit more complicated, of course.] Then we'll ask them to do the same for the Grace/Blessing at the reception. If they didn't get along so well with me and each other, I'd "assign" such things, or just have the Hebrew Blessing my father will lead.