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Catholic Priest Etiquette??

mandiking04mandiking04 member
Eighth Anniversary
in Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh
We are  having a catholic ceremony and our priest is a friend of both our families, even marrying my fiance's sister.  We are getting married in Pittsburgh and he lives in Erie, PA.  He obviously will need to come down Friday for the rehersal, as well as the ceremony on Saturday.  We aren't really sure what the proper rule is for out of town priests: do we pay for their room?  We are paying for his dinner Friday and Saturday.  Do we get him a gfit as well?  Our church is BYOP (bring your own priest) because we are non-members.
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Re: Catholic Priest Etiquette??

  • CaitlynmkCaitlynmk member
    100 Comments First Anniversary
    I'm not entirely sure about paying for his room, but I would think that would be a good thing to do. Since you aren't having the ceremony in his church, that would be just like giving him a donation as a thank you. Definitely invite him to the rehearsal dinner and your reception. We did that for our Catholic priest, however he was sick and chose not to come.

    We did not give our priest a gift, and since there was no specific fee they requested for using the church for our ceremony, we just wrote a check to the parish and gave it to him with a thank you card. I've heard of people giving the priest gift cards to say, Starbucks, if you know that he likes his coffee, but any money a Catholic priest gets for officiating a ceremony he will end up donating to the church anyway.
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  • manjermjmanjermj member
    Seventh Anniversary 500 Comments 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    Our Priest was from out of town as well and we paid for his hotel Friday-Sunday and invited him to the rehearsal dinner. I'm sure it's not expected, but it is a very nice gesture. They don't make much money and he is traveling quite a bit for your big day. We did not get our Priest a gift, but wrote him a very nice (and long!) thank you card.
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  • emilyb213emilyb213 member
    500 Comments 25 Love Its Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    I'm a little confused: the church you're getting married in, is it a Catholic church? I believe that a priest can only perform a valid ceremony in a Catholic church unless they receive dispensation from their diocese.

    It would be a nice gesture to pay for his rooms since he has to travel for the wedding. I also agree with Caitlyn about doing a gift card. Any cash a priest receives generally goes back to their church in one way or another.
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