Catholic Wedding

I had a catholic wedding but with the full mass however it was in Ireland so some slight differences. When we went to the pre-marriage course in Oxford, a Catholic priest came to do the 'mass' discussion part of weddings and he told us that for the weddings he does, he walks in the aisle ahead of the bride and her father and again back down the aisle after the service ahead of the couple. That doesn't happen in Ireland at all but I'm not sure if that happens at all Catholic weddings here. Your best bet is to ask OH about if he has been to catholic weddings in the family or perhaps his parents have? Failing that, ask him to ask the priest at his local parish?

It's usually the priest walking ahead of the bride and her father then bridesmaids. The groom is waiting at the altar, as traditional. To be honest, the Catholic Church is so desperate for people to marry in church that things have relaxed a bit but it will depend on how traditional your priest is. We are having a catholic ceremony - I am catholic, OH is not. We start our marriage prep soon with the priest and so far, everything has been fine and nothing too restrictive. Also, the fact that OH isn't catholic hasn't been a problem - the main thing is that he's accepting of catholic faith, etc. I guess we'll find out more when we start the prep, but as far as we've experienced (and from what I've seen at other catholic weddings of my family) priest goes first (or sometimes is even already at the altar with the groom).

All the ones I've been to have had the priest come in first, followed by bride & whoever is walking her down the aisle... But I think its down to individual priests? I'm not sure where bridesmaids go, I've seen them come after the bride and before the bride!! I've never seen the bride and groom go together... Groom has always been at the altar. We're going to see our priest tomorrow so I'll ask him!!

Will you let us know the answer? I'm having a catholic wedding too and had no idea about this. From what I'm reading it looks like its maybe up to each church/priest?

Sure! It might be Sunday before I post back as we'll be going to H2B's parents' house afterwards and they live in the land of no mobile signal

Not a problem - I'll just keep an eye out. I've been thinking actually and at my friend's catholic wedding last year we had had no rehearsal and we just did it the American way - flowergirl, bridesmaids, then her and her dad and meeting fiance at the altar. I just watched the video too and it seems "Here comes the bride" was playing which according to a lot of catholic wedding websites is not allowed - so maybe it won't be as strict as they're making out after all.

Our priest is fairly relaxed, but there are certain parts that have to be said for the marriage to be valid. Apart from that I think it's down to the priest. I'm hoping we'll br allowed to have a non-religious reading, and to skip communion because only about a third of the people will actually take it. H2B isn't religious and those of his family that ate religious are church of England. I'm hoping to make it as accessible as possible for non-religious folk... I'll let you know how it goes!! I have heard of 'here comes the bride' not being allowed, as it's not technically sacred music and some places e.g. my cousin's priest in Northern Ireland wouldn't allow it. I'm having Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring as my walking-in music and our priest was ok with it so I think it is down to the individual priest!

Right, I'm back, and I think I have information lol.

So, to begin with my priest is bonkers so getting a straight answer from him is maddening. I asked him about the walking down the aisle thing, and he said yes he walks the bride and groom down. So I said "so the dad doesn't walk the bride down the aisle?" and he said oh yes the father does that. Right. So I showed him our marriage book that says the priest walks the bride and groom down with their parents and he said "do whatever you want."

He was getting ready to go on holiday and was being snarky and annoying and was stressing us out about everything, so I left it at that and then went to see my parents to vent.

I asked my mum, who has been to a few weddings at the church and she said that the priest *meets* the groom, then the groomsmen walk the mums in followed by groom and his dad; the priest stays at the door. When the bride and father (or whoever is giving away) arrive the priest walks in followed by bridesmaids then bride plus giver-away.

She also told me she'd give our priest a talking to for being narky. My mum is a fierce "Irish mammy" and will think nothing of bossing a priest around! Lol sorry this probably doesn't help much but I think it is the individual priest's decision.

The Priest precession is what happens at a mass, with the Eucharistic book, crucifix etc but if you're not having a mass this might not be the case.

One of the only questions I didn't ask the priest, if anyone gets an answer that'd be great.

That's a good point, I didn't think about that. Though my cousin got married last summer and had a mass, but the priest stayed at the altar.

My priest was just like "yeah whatever" about the whole thing so, I have no idea whether that's just him or whether you can ask your priest to do what you prefer??

P.S. Sorry for lack of paragraphs in my earlier post - writing from stupid smart phone and formatting goes bonkers!! I've edited it now to read better.

Thanks for all the info. I'll just need to make sure we ask all the right questions when I meet our priest. Don't think we're planning on doing a full mass.