Catholic ceremony then civil ceremony

We did civil first and in June our doing our Catholic wedding. Our Priest said the only thing he would have to do is pretty much write a letter to the Bishop explaining the reasoning as to why we decided to have our civil ceremony prior to the religious ceremony. However, I do believe that during the religious ceremony that is also where you would sign the marriage license.

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@jroo I tried to post once before but it didn't work I don't think. Do you have any updates on this? I'm in a similar situation.

View Quoted Comment Hey! I'm in a similar pickle as well. Only that our issue is we had to change venues (finance issues) and the venue we finally secured only had a Sunday opening which we chose. Our original date was Saturday but we got the next day, Sunday at the New venue. now our Catholic priest won't marry us on Sunday because of rules and all that. How did you two go about it?

View Quoted Comment Hey @Alysha, I’m new to trying to post on here and so far it’s not working too well for me haha; anyway, we found a priest who is willing to work with us but we’re doing two ceremonies. It took a while to find one that was willing to work with us. We’re doing one in the church probably on a Friday morning by the priest and we will have to sign our marriage license at that time but then we are going to have a civil ceremony outside the next day and the reception. So technically it would be more like a renewal of vows but it was very important for us to get married outside and important for our families to be married in the church. I hope this makes sense! Feel free to ask any other questions!

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Hi Jane! Question for you - Why was it hard to find a priest willing to work with you if the Catholic ceremony was first and the marriage certificate signed then? I am hoping to do the same thing for my wedding and I don't understand why that would be an issue? It is important to have my marriage blessed by the church but a ceremony outside of the church (my fiance and his family are Lutheran). Do you have any advice for finding a priest and approaching the situation?

View Quoted Comment Hi Emily! I talked to multiple priests to find one willing to work with me. My hometown priest was willing to do it after I explained the situation, but we wanted to find someone in Arizona to make it easier on everyone. I talked to 4-5 different priests before finding one that said he had done this before and would work with us. That’s my best advice is to look around and have conversations. The issue I ran into is most don’t believe in having two ceremonies. With differing religions you may be able to request special circumstances and be married by a priest and another official. My aunt is Jewish and I know they requested a special situation and were approved. My fiancé and I were both raised Catholic so we didn’t qualify for it. Just be patient and know it takes times. I actually am now friends with a girl from this group on Facebook and we chat every once in a while about the situation. Feel free to find me and I can add you to the conversation! Good luck!