My fiance is deployed, but when he returns home we want to get married in the courthouse. We want to have our actual ceremony/reception in April of next year.
I am a little worried about the pastor performing our ceremony being put off if we are already married. It's a fake ceremony, technically.
I mean do we just carry on as if it were real and then skip the marriage license signing?
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!
Re: Help!
Just don't hide that you're legally married from your family/friends/church and don't call the vow renewal in April a wedding and you're good to go!
Congrats on your upcoming nuptuals!
And ditto what other's said, don't lie. I know someone who did lie about it and her family was furious with her when they found out about it.
We are doing a Civil Ceremony in Dec. With a Vow Renewal/Church Ceremony/Recieving of the Sarcament Ceremony in May of next year. We are Catholic and I had some of your same concerns. I have heard of Priests being very offended. We contacted our Priest and he was fine with it as long as we understand that according to OUR FAITH pur marriage was not official in the eyes of the CHURCH until we recieved the sacrament of Marriage in a Church Ceremony. Also he was okay with it as long as we didn't live together before hand.
As for our Church/Religious Ceremony it will be performed the exact same way as if we didn't do the Civil Ceremony. The only difference is that the Marriage License is already signed by the Judge and Witnesses, so there is no license to sign at the end.
HTH - In the End I would contact your Pastor and see what he thinks. Mine was very understanding with our situation- (FI being in the Military and we wanted to get a head start on paper work so I could move right after the wedding. )
Depending on your faith your Pastor/Priest may have similar/disimilar requirements or beliefs.