Catholic Ceremony Timing

Hello, was wondering if you can find a different catholic church? My fh and I are also getting married at a catholic church. Many places were giving me different times. One priest even offered to marry us at 330, but that's cause we attend mass there every weekend. I say talk to your priest. Maybe he can move it to a different time. The thing is many churches have a 5pm mass on sat and you'll have to rush out for the people that get there at 430. But that's what I would suggest. Either way you'll still have that gap no matter what. Hope this helps.

Does your church allow Friday weddings? We did a Friday night because we wanted an evening wedding and the latest time our church allowed was 3:00pm. Just a thought if you have the flexibility with your major vendors. Good luck!

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Ahh To get married at another church they require you to be a member so I would have to go through registering at another church and all that. I'm waiting to hear back from the church about a different time, noon is too early!!

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I think both of Anna's and Monica's suggestions - finding a different church or changing the date - are great suggestions, Stephanie.

I've got the question: if the reception is at your parents', is it possible to have part of it indoors? Or can you pitch an event tent in their backyard and have fans in it?

My visual was to have string lights across the backyard, we live on a few acres so there's trees and it's very woodsy and pretty so I was trying to avoid a tent, but if we're going to have to have the wedding earlier a tent may be smarter. Ugh just not what I wanted it to be like. This whole timing thing is throwing me off. The church is strict on their timing now too, they confirmed that 12 is the latest they'll allow.

Hey Stephanie, we ran into the same issue with our Catholic Church not allowing ceremonies after noon on Saturdays. We decided to have the wedding on Friday to eliminate that problem, and we can have our guests go right from the ceremony to the reception. Oh, the compromises you make when you start to plan your own wedding! 😉 We do have friends doing a Catholic ceremony in June, the ceremony is at 2pm and the reception is at 7pm. They are directing everyone to a winery in the area. Good luck!

View Quoted Comment A lot of parishes as long as you have attended one or two of their masses, they dont really question anything. Others will ask you have permission from your current parish. It's not that hard.
I should warn that some require a document stating that your free to marry. But each parish is different. I still think you should ask. Nothing wrong in looking.

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That is typically the problem isn't it? We had to decide between an 11am ceremony or 1pm and really no other time on Saturdays that they can perform it so I think Friday's you might have more flexibility with that. You mentioned the reception is at your parents private residence - will it be indoors or outdoors? If it's indoors I don't think the time of day will be an issue. Outdoors though with that Florida heat at 2pm...

View Quoted Comment Hi! The timing was probably the most difficult thing for me. My wedding was in October and I felt that people didn’t dance as it was still light out due to us having the reception immediately after the ceremony. I didn’t want to make it inconvenient for those out of town to have to find something to do if we decided to have a gap in between. The reception was outdoors and it just so happened to be down pouring the morning of my wedding lol luckily we had a tent but that was sooooooo stressful. It was on and off raining all morning and things were wet and then when the reception happened it was extremely humid. All around a good time hahahaha

View Quoted Comment Oh no gosh I hope it was still just as memorable for you though as much as we plan things never go accordingly to plan 100%