Four steps to getting married

1.  Contact your local parish.

In order to allow time for reflection together and for fulfilling all of the steps in preparation for marriage, a couple (a man and a woman) must pay a personal visit to the local parish priest (the priest of the parish where you currently live) six to nine months prior to the proposed date for their wedding.

2.  Attend a Catholic marriage preparation program

Marriage Preparation Courses offer:

  • Information about what the Catholic Church believes and teaches about marriage and family life.
  • Advice and practical assistance for your daily married lives.
  • An introduction to Natural Family Planning, a method of planning your family that is both reliable and in harmony with God’s design for sexual intimacy and Church teaching.  Natural Family Planning not only assists with planning or spacing births, but is also extremely effective in working with any infertility issues.

Contact your local parish office for information about upcoming Marriage Preparation Courses.

3.  Follow-up meeting with your priest

After completion of an approved Marriage Preparation Course a second meeting is to be conducted by the local priest, deacon or parish worker.  Its purpose is to give you, the couple, the opportunity to reaffirm your decision for marriage and in particular for marriage in the Church.  Each party will be interviewed separately.

4.  The Celebration of your wedding

Weddings can be celebrated on any day of the week.  Weddings may not be celebrated in Holy Week or on any day of the Easter Triduum. 

Weddings during Advent and Lent are not encouraged.  If a wedding is celebrated during Advent or Lent, the wedding ceremony should reflect the special nature of this liturgical season.

It is important for you to speak to the priest or deacon who will be presiding your wedding in order to discuss the details of the wedding ceremony. 

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