Is anyone Catholic?

[JJClemson]

I know the rules, for some crazy reason, the Catholic church will not let you marry at Disney :rolleyes: My DF and I are both Catholic, and decided we must have a DFTW, and will get re-married in the Catholic church when we are ready to have children.

I heard somewhere that you can have a Reverend or Minister marry you at Disney, and then a Catholic priest will bless your marriage, and then you are married in the Catholic church. Has anyone else heard of this/ done this? My Catholic priest unfortunately would not do this, but I would like to find one who would, if this is all true.

Thanks for your help :)

Jen

[Boo0105]

I'm catholic too. What I am doing is getting married at the church on Saturday and then having my DFTW on Monday. So basically it is kind of a vow renewal at Disney. Reverand Jack will not be signing my marriage licence he will just be perfoming the ceremony. My priest also told us he could not marry us if we were married at Disney first, don't know why, I think it has something to do with signing the licence.

[sarah_n_brian2006]

definitely like she said. get with your priest, and parents, have a courthouse type wedding that the priest would approve of, and then have the DFTW. WDW will need a copy of the marriage license before you can start though to prove you are married.

[JJClemson]

Hmmm... so I'd need to be married before DFTW by the priest. I really want to be married for the first time at Disney! Why does the church have to make this so difficult :sad2:

[p2oh]

We are both catholic and our priest has agreed to bless our union afterward if we go through all the steps required by the church, including pre-canna (sp?) classes and counseling sessions before the ceremony in WDW. I really think it is up to the individual priest. Also, we are very active in our church so that may help out the cause.

[JandJ]

I was raised Catholic, now kind of only-go-at-Christmas person, but I digress . . . the rules do change in the church, but I do know that my cousin was married by a minister in his parent's backyard years ago (like maybe 15 years ago) and then when they decided to have kids, about 10 years ago, they had a priest bless their marriage. They had a little ceremony, my parents and I went to it, and that was that - they are now married as Catholics because of that blessing, able to have the kids baptized, etc. Check with your priest if you want to be sure though!

Good luck :goodvibes

[JJClemson]

I already checked w/ the priest I grew up with, in NJ, and he would not bless a marriage outside the church. Even though my family is very active in the church and my mother has worked there for 15 years, he is just very traditional. I am not a fan of the church in my town now, in SC, and do not belong to the church. I guess I will try to find a priest around who will bless the wedding... if not, I will just wait a few years until we are ready to have children and do the small ceremony thing w/ the church.

Thanks for all your help!

Jen

[littleladykaty]

yeah, the Catholic church and I are in a fight right now...I feel like they are being very difficult for no reason whatsoever...it drives me batty seriously. It seems to me that the Catholic church is in no position to JUDGE anyone and I don't see how getting married at Disney hurts anyone's catholicism!!! :rolleyes2 I am getting married at a Vineyard and had initially wanted to have my priest do the ceremony...OH NO...of course not. I'm such a little sinner y'all and of course I need all the help I can get due to my blackened little soul and the beauty of vineyard is not holy enough for Father Flannigan! So I went and really sinned and found me non denominational Rev. Barry Hobbs off of the internet and Father Flannigan can go sit on a tack SO THERE!

My grandmother (who lives in Ireland) actually said (after I explained the issue) "Oh Mother Most Merciful, well we'll have to call the Pope then love, he'll have a lovely chat with this Father Flannigan and everything will be grand!" :rotfl: See Nana believes that because she is Irish which is where "real" catholics are from, that the Pope would OF COURSE speak with her as it is a matter of grave importance! :rotfl:

I'm feeling your pain babe...we'll get a blessing later if we have to, but seriously, I'll just bless myself and my family and be done with it! (grrr, obviously I'm still a little irked... :rolleyes: )

[JJClemson]

Littleladykaty- You made me crack up! :rotfl: I am Irish Catholic too and both my Nanny and Grandma had similar things to say. I was told I was making my Pop roll over in his grave by not getting married in the church! It's nice to know someone else has to deal with this too ;)

[IrishCinderella]

I'm with Katy! I was raised (Irish) Catholic, went to Catholic school, had all the sacraments, the whole nine yards! My father is MEGA Catholic, so he's not thrilled about the fact that we won't be "officially" married in the church until our blessing afterwards. But while I was researching this subject, I found an interesting lead...there's a faction of Catholics out there that are less strict about this whole issue. They are called "Old Catholics". They have all the same sacrements, mass, etc. but their priests can marry, and they can perform marriages outside of the church! I'm not entirely sure, but the Roman Catholic church may even recognize the marriage (really not sure about this). This was "not good enough" for my father, but it may help one of you.

http://www.saintthomasmorechurch.com/

This church is in the Orlando area, and the website explains a lot about their rules, etc.

Hope this helps someone! :confused3

[smoof]

I have not done this yet, but how I understand it, if you get married outside the church, either civil or by a minister of another faith, you can go back to your church and have your marriage blessed. It is the same as far as being accepted as married in the Catholic Church. I also saw there is an orgainization of men who have left the priesthood who will marry you, and basically just because you aren't a priest anymore doesn't mean you can't give the sacraments. Apparently it is a glitch in Cannon Law. Don't laugh, the organization is rentapriest. They have a website, and former priests in central Florida. If you are from the Orlando area, I don't know how well received either of these will go. That diocese is weird. If you are from outside the diocese they won't even let you get married in their churches.

[JJClemson]

Thanks Rebecca! I am checking out that website.. I am sure my family won't approve either :rolleyes2

[Rustyflwr3]

I am with Rebecca and Katy - (as for being pretty annoyed with the issue!!!) I was raised all catholic; went through communion and confirmation..everything! My mother is a VERY hard core catholic and does not agree with a disney wedding. However, it is very important to us and we have to do what we have to do :)

[IrishCinderella]

Yeah, the whole thing is pretty frustrating. I remember last year when I was researching, the lady I spoke with at the Orlando Diocese was beyond rude. :furious: I guess that's the part that is the most frustrating. I don't mind being told no nicely...I just hate when they act all hoity-toity, like you are going to go to H-E-L-L just for asking the question! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since I grew up heavily entrenched in the Catholic church. ;)

Anyways, I just wish that they were a little more civil about this issue.

[littleladykaty]

My DF said that Father John from St. Aloysious in Caldwell NJ will marry anyone anywhere for any reason!! And you do know what he told me...oh my, he LIED to the church and said he was baptised when he actually WASN'T!!! (this was his first marriage...maybe that's why it failed...hmmm...well that or his wife was having an internet affair...it's a toss up... :rotfl2: ) He was raised in a sort of Methodist home...but his mom was only 16 when she had him...so she's a sinner too...maybe that's why she and I get on so well!

Y'know I don't know why I bothered to be such a good Catholic girl all those years...suffering through Catholic girls school and UNIFORMS and doing the stations of the cross and even considering...don't laugh...being a NUN :rotfl: for a while...okay I was like 10 but still...I said DON'T LAUGH! ;) The Catholic church wonders why so many people rebel and leave when they are adults and this is part of the reason why...Oh and can we talk about the cost of an annulment?! It can be as much as three years and $10,000 to get it done...are you KIDDING ME?! Ummm Extortion much? :rolleyes2 I bet if they just went and let all the priests get married the Catholic church would be a whole different and MUCH happier institution...(as I duck firebolts and everlasting dam *n*ation!!!

Can I just say that when I was little the nuns did a lesson about sins and purity...there were three bottles of milk...one was white, one had brown spots (which I suspect were chocolate chips) and one was completely brown...they represented your soul as pure...not so pure...and in mortal peril!!! Guess which milk bottle I preferred...the chocolate mortal peril one!!! :rotfl2:

bless me father for I have sinned...and sinned and sinned... ;) :angel:

I personally think y'all are FABULOUS people in no danger of mortal issue...so now everyone can go and do as they please...y'all been blessed! ;)

[JJClemson]

;) My DF said that Father John from St. Aloysious in Caldwell NJ will marry anyone anywhere for any reason!!

Katy- I am checking into this man! I am in NJ now for a couple weeks visiting my family, but I am going to track him down... thanks for the info. I just want some Catholic priest to bless our marriage, I do not care who! You would think that wouldn't be so hard to do, but we all know better :lmao:

Your Catholic stories are hysterical! You must be reading my mind. I'm sure all the nuns who have taught us, the goody-goody Catholic school girls, would never suspect us to get married outside the church. I think since the Catholic church had a really tough beginning, they like to keep making the lives of their parishioners more difficult!

Well fellow sinners, thanks for the advice! I think we're all awesome too, and the priests are just jealous they cannot marry, b/c I am sure they would have like a Disney wedding too ;)

[Goobergal99]

I wasn't married at disney but listen to this Drama.

DH and I had my DD when I was a senior in HS (no secret around here) So anyways, we lived together for over 5 years before we finally got married last June. So, as soon as we were enagaged we started planning our wedding and in December of '04 I called my parish and requested the date and the woman held the date and asked me what day we wanted to come in for pre cana so we scheduled our pre cana class for March. She asked both our names and ADDRESS and I told her we had the same address and she said ok congratulations see you in March.

Now it is important to note before I continue that My grandfather was very active in the church and while he was alive he became good friends with one of the priests in our old parish and so after he passed on the priest and I continued to write and stay close. So I mentioned when I called that the priest would be officiating the service, again to problem he's a catholic priest yada yada.

So then March comes and Dh and I go for pre cana but before the actual class the pastor likes to meet the couple so as we are sitting there and divulge our story he realizes we live togther and tells us we can't marry in the church. So I kinda freaked, the sag came out in me and I went on with "Well you don't mind taking the tuition money for my DD to attend your school and you sure don't mind getting my envelope every week" yada yada and right before I went on with my feelings about the whole church sex scandal my DH got me out of there.

So at this point I am freaking out because I only have three months to go and no ceremony site, so I call my aunt who has been a IHM nun for like 30 years and I ask her what to do and in her normal liberal mood she says "call another church" So I call my old Parish and they were so super glad to accomodate me but they didn't have the date. And you see the date was really important to us because it was DH"s GM's birthday and she died of cancer and they were realy close so we wanted the date, not to mention the recpeption was paid in full. So finally I decide to just go with a civil ceremony but that left the ordeal of Father Ryan not marrying us. So I called him up explained the situation and he said that even though he couldn't marry us under catholic law out of a church. He suggested we write the ceremony make it all about us, have all the crazy music we could ever want and he would bless the cremony afterward and then marry us in a church at another time ;)

So we ended up getting the best wedding officiant, having the cremony in the same room as the reception (they set it up beautifuly with an arch and all),and had the most unique wedding ever we even had a family rose ceremony where me, DH and DD each put a rose in a glass and it represented the official union of our family, it was sweet. (and we had a priest and a nun present LOL :rotfl2: )

In addition DH's uncle got married a couple weeks later in the church and everyone said that it was more about the signifigance of religion then it was about the two of them getting married. Everyone was coming up to us saying your ceremony was so romantic and unique, that wedding was a bore lol!

So my point is, don't worry about getting married in the church, just have a beautiful ceremony because marriage is about the two of you spending the rest of your lives together, not about commitment to organized religion.

[littleladykaty]

Oh hunny...NEVER be honest with The OneTrue and Holy Roman Catholic Empire about LIVING TOGETHER!!! You gotta lie your **** off in situations like that! ;)

My childhood priest wouldn't marry us based on the fact that we were "living in sin"...I asked him if we were just sleeping together and not living together would change things... :rotfl2: he suggested I spend some time in reflection and prayer... :rotfl: :lmao: I wanted to suggest he go to the dentist and see if he could do something about that breath...but my mom already had my arm and was dragging me out of the church! :confused3 what? I was just ASKING...sheesh some people are SO TOUCHY! I had had it with the Holy Roman Catholic Empire by then...they had been giving me the run around for weeks and then to judge ME when I do believe it was Father Flannigan himself that had gotten into some trouble over missing money from the Parish Funds... :rolleyes2 whatevas...I seriously was the BEST little Catholic girl out there from start to finish...so no fun let me tell you... :smokin:

I finally had to realize that the Church is the church and I am who I am and I'm NOT sorry about that so I'm certainly NOT going to go around begging for their blessing. I AM blessed...and I don't need some grouchy old poot headed priest to tell me so. Plus my Nana said that she would have Father O'Riley bless our marriage when we came to visit at Christmas SO :p and a :smokin:

YAY US!! Wild Independent girls who will not be reigned in by an organization that truly needs to focus on it's own issues before they start pointing fingers! Y'all are blessed by St. Mickey Mouse and St. Walt Disney!! :cool1:

[SyrCinderella]

I am truly disappointed at the Church's stance on this. For goodness sakes, this is DISNEY! Could there BE a company that prides itself more on their vales and encoragement of the family? No one is asking them to bless a marriage which took place in a coven of witches.

We have been very active in our church, DD was a soloist a couple of years back at the National Catholic Youth conference, but I think its great she wants to be married at Disney. Too bad the Church has to be so persnickety about this, in the end its their loss.

[ducklite]

DH and I were openly living together when we got married in the Catholic Church. When we asked about Pre-cana, our priest said "Do you want to go?" and we said "Not really." He said "OK, don't worry about it."

Not all RC churches and priests are alike.

Anne

[TimonTracy]

My FH and I met with a priest yesterday. We will get married in Disney in late November and then we'll get our civil union blessed at a later date.

My FH is catholic, I am not - but we've agreed to raise our kids catholic.

[TiggerStac]

DH and I ran into a whole debate w/my dad when we were getting married. My dad wanted me/us to get married in a church and at the time dh and I wanted WDW. A family friend (who is a fransican monk sp??) told my dad how things have changed and that parents do not need to be married in the catholic church for children to be baptised, etc. I had thought about this, because do they not baptise children of unwed parents??

Anyways...my DS was baptised in the catholic church I went to as a kid at 6 weeks old. We had no problems with this at all and I have his baptism certificate. My DH and I were married in a Garden Ceremony by a Justice of the Peace. Our marriage was never "blessed" either. It was never even brought up when we called about having DS baptised.

[hmgolden]

I am truly disappointed at the Church's stance on this. For goodness sakes, this is DISNEY! Could there BE a company that prides itself more on their vales and encoragement of the family? No one is asking them to bless a marriage which took place in a coven of witches.

According to church doctrine, a catholic wedding must take place inside a church - no outside weddings, no cruise ship weddings, no Disney weddings. DH did a lot of research about the church wedding issue. He even discovered that according to canon law, a bride and groom do not even need to be present at the wedding ceremony - they can send proxies in their place as long as the ceremony takes place in a church. As it became more and more clear to DH and I that a catholic wedding has very little to do with the couple getting married, we opted to not continue with the process of getting our marriage blessed.

[Janet2k]

It’s a shame that organized religion gets in the way, isn’t it. My heart goes out to all of you as this is a personal issue that many Catholics have to work their way through.

Here’s my story. My husband and I are both Catholic. We eloped the fist time we got married (Justice of the Peace ceremony). That was good enough for us, and also good enough for God. When we renewed our wedding vows in Walt Disney World twenty years later (Justice of the Peace ceremony again), that was good enough for us, and also good enough for God. Being married outside of consecrated grounds had no bearing on our marriage or how we lived our lives. We’re both good people who only have to answer to each other and God.

Where to get married is a personal decision that only you can make. Again, it’s a shame that organized religion gets in the way of true love, but no one ever said life would be easy. You will find a happy medium, have no fear.

I wish all of you nothing but the best that life has to offer, be it through an official Catholic ceremony, a Catholic blessing, a Justice of the Peace ceremony, or any other number of paths that you may choose. Congratulations on your upcoming marriages (and vow renewals).

[Goobergal99]

DH and I were openly living together when we got married in the Catholic Church. When we asked about Pre-cana, our priest said "Do you want to go?" and we said "Not really." He said "OK, don't worry about it."

Not all RC churches and priests are alike.

Anne


I wish I lived in your parish/area. LOL :rotfl2: but it is true they are not all alike, like I said my old parish was totally willing to marry us they just didn't have the date. and at that point I was too frustrated to find another one.

I will say that the thing I found the most funny was that we were raising our child together in a family enviroment, would it have been better if we just lived seperately and confused our DD. but then again they surely would have told me we shouldn't have had a child out of wedlock because catholics seem to think this is 25 B.C. :rolleyes1

[jlovesee]

I agree Im starting to believe more and more that the catholic church is more about power then it truly is about god.

My husband and I were married at Disney about 4 1/2 years ago (Jan 26, 2002) and boy did we go through the melodrama with the church. Just a little background Im Catholic my husband isn't. Some people on here have been more lucky then myself in that their families were supportive. Well mine wasn't. My aunt even came up to me the day before our wedding and said we its nice getting married here but my daughters will do it right and get married in a church!

My mom and grandmother also tried my coercive means to get me to get married the "proper" way. Well I finally decided after almost backing out several times to do what I really wanted and we got married at Disney. its a decision I have never regretted.

I had talked with my chuch St Therese before we left and they did treat me like dirt, basically saying call us back when you really want to get married. Because we had moved to another park of the city (we live in Kansas City, MO) I checked it out with a church in that area St. Marks, and they were nice about the issue. Basically we had to wait a year after the wedding to get it blessed, which is what we did.

Ive heard about the Florida Diocese and cannot and will not believe that god ever meant it to be like this.

Jennifer

[littleladykaty]

I'm sorry to hear that people have had such a hard time with the church. I just don't get it. I mean the church is desperately looking for young families with children to rebuild parishes after all that has gone on the last few years. Why on earth alienate people by being such self righteous JERKS? :confused3 Oh well...I think people are figuring out more and more that God is about Love and love is the basis of marriage...as long as we love each other and are good to eachother that should be good enough for the church. *sigh*

we are all good people here...getting married in the church doesn't mean that your marriage is somehow protected or will last...so many girls that I know are only sending their kids to CCD so that they can get married in the church if they want to, not b/c they believe in the principle of CCD or religious education.

There are enough things in the world to feel bad about...leave it to the catholic church to try and make us feel guilty about getting married! But then guilt is their game right?

GRRRR mean people suck! ;)

[JJClemson]

He even discovered that according to canon law, a bride and groom do not even need to be present at the wedding ceremony - they can send proxies in their place as long as the ceremony takes place in a church. As it became more and more clear to DH and I that a catholic wedding has very little to do with the couple getting married, we opted to not continue with the process of getting our marriage blessed.

That is crazy! The bride and groom do not even have to be present to have a Catholic wedding! Ok, so I'll just send a couple of friends to be our proxies while we get married at Disney :rotfl: Not really. I am seriously reconsidering the whole Catholic thing. I do not even know if I want my marriage blessed by a priest anymore! Why do they have to make this so difficult? :rolleyes2

[Goobergal99]

I agree Im starting to believe more and more that the catholic church is more about power then it truly is about god.

Jennifer

::yes::

[LuluLovesDisney]

Very interesting thread!

It definitely showed me why I am no longer Catholic. Way too hypocritical. The Catholic Church has so many rules, that most Catholics could not begin to name all of them, never mind follow them.

My SIL says she's Catholic, but disagrees with almost every point the Catholic Church mentions- Lent, fasting, birth control, divorce, living together beore marriage, homosexuality, etc.

I am currently Unitarian Universalist with an interest in Buddhism because it's closest to what I truly believe but most of what has been discussed still applies to me because I have to have a Catholic ceremony for my Mother.

There are some great ideas on here. I think I would agree with the poster who said she'd prefer to have the WDW FTW first. It's where I want my wedding, so it's where I want it first. I figure I can have a ceremony at home when I get back.

Can a Catholic priest really refuse to marry a couple because they were previously married in WDW or can they just refuse to do the blessing afterwards? I mean, couldn't you just say you had a change of heart and really want to do the Catholic thing now?

[Goobergal99]

[QUOTE=LuluLovesDisney]Very interesting thread!

It definitely showed me why I am no longer Catholic. Way too hypocritical. The Catholic Church has so many rules, that most Catholics could not begin to name all of them, never mind follow them.
QUOTE]

Most Catholics pick and choose the ones they want to follow anyway :rotfl:

I will say however that this reminds me of a lil something. Last weekend my DD had a terrible bout of otitis media (ear infection) and we ended up in the ER b/c she eas in alot of pain. So I am in tears because I can't do anything for her and one of the ER nurses is trying to calm me down (I am a nurse for goodness sakes :confused3 ) so as my DD started to relax so did I so the nurse says to me "Honey it's not your fault that she's sick" to which I respond "I know but I'm Catholic and Italian that results in lots of guilt" My DH just laughed. :rotfl2:

[littleladykaty]

:lmao: love that guilt...when my sisters and I were little and we would fuss about one thing or another my Nanna, who lives in Ireland would say "To be sure, you are making the baby Jesus cry...don't you feel ashamed?!" :lmao:

I always took the bait...hook line and sinker...*sigh* I've much guilt about every little thing...but nanna always said I was to "offer up any discomforts I have and go to confession and pray to Mother Most Merciful to intercede on my behalf..." :rotfl2: she would tell me this when I was...6!

Nanna is a very GOOD catholic!!

[DisneyBrideWannabe]

I'm a little confused. Wouldn't lying to the priest about living together or having sex just to be married in the church defeat the purpose? :confused3 The big man upstairs knows the truth. This is why I'm not Catholic, even though most of my extended family is. If so many people are unhappy with the catholic doctrines, why not switch to a more liberal church that better aligns with your persoanl beliefs about religion and God? I don't want to have to some day lie about who am or what I did just to have someone tell me I can or can not marry the person I love. When my ultra-Catholic aunt said that I was getting married at Disney b/c my Df and I live in sin and couldn't marry in church, I replied that first of all I am Baptist, did Adam and Eve marry in a church? and how come God can hear us when we pray outside of church, but can't here my marriage vows outside of a church? If they don;t like, then I guess it save me $80 a head :p

[Goobergal99]

I'm a little confused. Wouldn't lying to the priest about living together or having sex just to be married in the church defeat the purpose? :confused3 The big man upstairs knows the truth. This is why I'm not Catholic, even though most of my extended family is. If so many people are unhappy with the catholic doctrines, why not switch to a more liberal church that better aligns with your persoanl beliefs about religion and God? I don't want to have to some day lie about who am or what I did just to have someone tell me I can or can not marry the person I love. When my ultra-Catholic aunt said that I was getting married at Disney b/c my Df and I live in sin and couldn't marry in church, I replied that first of all I am Baptist, did Adam and Eve marry in a church? and how come God can hear us when we pray outside of church, but can't here my marriage vows outside of a church? If they don;t like, then I guess it save me $80 a head :p

Kudos to that, better yet, why not just believe and be spiritual without having to belong to a man made organized religion that charges admission :confused3 :rolleyes1

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Hi there! i'm a SWAN bride 2004!!! i got married in the AM at the Swan by Rev. Bob Myers ( he signed my marriage certificate) Then that evening at 5pm i was married at HOly Family Church in Orlando Florida by Fr. Greg (and i'm from IL). I had a FULL out Catholic mass with 75 guests! it was phenomenal!! and them back to the Swan for my evening reception!!! :) If you have any questions just PM me or post here :)

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Dh and i lived together before we were married and our priest that prepared us (in IL) knew about this. We really had no problems at all with anything.

[Tinkerbellz]

My DH and I are catholic, we have raised our children thus and when we do our VR in 2008, we are having our favorite Rabbi do the ceremony. He is an amazing man whom I feel closer too than our local priest. (Now as a catholic, I know where I'll end up :furious: ) :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2:

Anyway, you have to do what is right for you and your family. I must agree with a previous poster that said the union between her and her DH was with a JOP and between them and God.


Being Catholic means we can guilt our kids into anything.... :rotfl2:

[Goobergal99]

My DH and I are catholic, we have raised our children thus and when we do our VR in 2008, we are having our favorite Rabbi do the ceremony. He is an amazing man whom I feel closer too than our local priest. (Now as a catholic, I know where I'll end up :furious: ) :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2:

Anyway, you have to do what is right for you and your family. I must agree with a previous poster that said the union between her and her DH was with a JOP and between them and God.


Being Catholic means we can guilt our kids into anything.... :rotfl2:


So So true, I have to comment are they your kids in the pic in your sig? b/c if so how typically catholic to go through the rebellious goth stage. I totally did :rotfl2: My DH was way worse then me though (Vinyl pants and all) at our wedding My FIL and maid of honor made alot of cracks about it in their speeches LOL, My FIL asked me (very publicly) If I could see myself growing old with his son and my response was "Well If I stayed with him when he wore fishnet stockings and painted his nails, I am sure we will survive anything" Everyone laughed and my DH was as red as an apple. Of course I made a huge posterboard with pictures of us in high school to prove it LOL :lmao:

[Tinkerbellz]

Yes indeed Goobergal99. Those are my kiddos. :rotfl: They are an interesting bunch. If you see us walking around at Disney at the end of this month, DD will probably be wearing long shorts (they call them shpants) and a skirt on top. :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

I've decided I'd fight the much bigger issues that that. The small stuff is easy to deal with.

I know there is light at the end of the tunnel..One day they'll grow up and go "What the Heck was I thinking?!" :rotfl2: I'll be sitting there going :rolleyes1

[Goobergal99]

Yes indeed Goobergal99. Those are my kiddos. :rotfl: They are an interesting bunch. If you see us walking around at Disney at the end of this month, DD will probably be wearing long shorts (they call them shpants) and a skirt on top. :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

I've decided I'd fight the much bigger issues that that. The small stuff is easy to deal with.

I know there is light at the end of the tunnel..One day they'll grow up and go "What the Heck was I thinking?!" :rotfl2: I'll be sitting there going :rolleyes1

LOL I think I had the same color hair as your DD :rotfl2: when I was 16

So, so true. I always say that my DH let it go on alot longer just to further aggravate his father who thought he was depressed b/c of the way he dressed LOL.

Come to think about it, he still wears the Doc Martens, he just replaced the fishnets on his arms with Tatoos :lmao: It's ok He has Jack Skellington and Sally so it's ok by me and DD ;)Thank god he is a brick layer and not a buisnessman :rolleyes1

But in any case everyone knows mommy is the one that needs to be normal :rotfl2:

[littleladykaty]

y'know what cracks me up, is that while the Church is unbending, inflexible and hypocritically judgemental...a lot of us who were raised up in it...being taught by nuns...trying to get away with rolling our skirts to make them shorter...well get one over on the church is just the Catholic way! And actually, even though I joke about it...there are elements of catholicism that I do believe in and subscribe to, but more than that...it's just culturally part of who I am. To not be Catholic anymore would be turning away from a huge part of my history and culture that is deeply important to my grandparents...

I am rambling...I guess I was just responding to people talking about not being Catholic anymore...that never occurred to me! I've just made it a religion that I can work with...Yes I am a good Catholic girl, and I have my childhood rituals that are deeply ingrained in my very being...but I question when I need to and talk to God all the time...without the intercession of anyone! We understand eachother...I have my close personal relationship and am still a Catholic. We are a motely, rag tag bunch sometimes... :rotfl:

Which is why I think that letting the church dictate where you get married and how that validates your marriage is silly! In the end it's between you and your husband and God...who I'm sure likes Disney very much! :thumbsup2

[Goobergal99]

y'know what cracks me up, is that while the Church is unbending, inflexible and hypocritically judgemental...a lot of us who were raised up in it...being taught by nuns...trying to get away with rolling our skirts to make them shorter...well get one over on the church is just the Catholic way! And actually, even though I joke about it...there are elements of catholicism that I do believe in and subscribe to, but more than that...it's just culturally part of who I am. To not be Catholic anymore would be turning away from a huge part of my history and culture that is deeply important to my grandparents...

I am rambling...I guess I was just responding to people talking about not being Catholic anymore...that never occurred to me! I've just made it a religion that I can work with...Yes I am a good Catholic girl, and I have my childhood rituals that are deeply ingrained in my very being...but I question when I need to and talk to God all the time...without the intercession of anyone! We understand eachother...I have my close personal relationship and am still a Catholic. We are a motely, rag tag bunch sometimes... :rotfl:

Which is why I think that letting the church dictate where you get married and how that validates your marriage is silly! In the end it's between you and your husband and God...who I'm sure likes Disney very much! :thumbsup2


I agree with all of the above, although I really don't consider myself a catholic anymore b/c I just don't practice. "Ok I am a non practicing catholic" :rotfl2:

I still carry it with me though... all that guilt :lmao:
My MIL just found out I was on BC and she was like "why, you are married" So what, didn't realize that meant I had to continue to procreate. But hey she is a devout catholic, a devout HYPOCRITE!! :rolleyes1

[Boo0105]

The church is just way too complicated. As I wrote before I am having my
catholic wedding before we head to Disney, this is my problem now. First of all they want my baptism, communion and confirmation certificates. The church that I did my communion & confirmation merged with the church I presently attend. So great they can get my communion & confirmation info.
Not so, they found my confirmation information but not my communion. So they ask me if I was sure that I did it at that church. I was like listen, I attended CCD classes there from 1st to 8th grade of course I did it there,plus how could I have done my confirmation without my communion. She then asked me the names of my classmates, luckily I remember a lot of them. She was like no your not on the list. She started to tick me off so I was like I have the pictures to prove it. As proof I now have to take pictures of my communion. Mind you I help out at the church, I was also married in the church before(not this one) and got an annulment, isn't that proof enough that I have done all my sacraments.

[JJClemson]

The church is just way too complicated. As I wrote before I am having my
catholic wedding before we head to Disney, this is my problem now. First of all they want my baptism, communion and confirmation certificates. The church that I did my communion & confirmation merged with the church I presently attend. So great they can get my communion & confirmation info.
Not so, they found my confirmation information but not my communion. So they ask me if I was sure that I did it at that church. I was like listen, I attended CCD classes there from 1st to 8th grade of course I did it there,plus how could I have done my confirmation without my communion. She then asked me the names of my classmates, luckily I remember a lot of them. She was like no your not on the list. She started to tick me off so I was like I have the pictures to prove it. As proof I now have to take pictures of my communion. Mind you I help out at the church, I was also married in the church before(not this one) and got an annulment, isn't that proof enough that I have done all my sacraments.

Oh my goodness! I think you belong to the same church I grew up in! The office ladies are the meanest people ever. I finally went there yesterday to cancel my wedding (I was originally doing the whole church thing, instead of DFTW, when I first booked it last December). They said they needed to see my I.D. before they would cancel it. Nevermind the fact that I had been going to this church since before I was born and my mother is a current employee there :mad: These ladies know me! I was so angry! I went out to my car, got my driver's license then they made me sign a piece of paper saying I was cancelling, and they compared that signature to the one on my driver's license! Isn't that crazy?

Hmmm... after that wonderful treatment I wonder why I would choose a DFTW over a Catholic ceremony? :rotfl:

[dsnyfan6/18]

I ran into the same problem. I spoke with my priest in my new parish and he told me that he could absoutely not bless my marriage. However, when I talked to my priest at the parish i grew up in, he was more than helpful. He will be performing a "convalidation ceremony" for us in the fall. we will still have to go through the pre-cana and all of that, but this is a common thing, and i don't understand why some parishes do not want to do it.

good luck!

[Tiggerific04]

I know no one's posted on this thread in quite awhile, but DF and I just got engaged a couple weeks ago and are running into all the same Catholic Church problems mentioned here.

If you have a wedding outside of the Church and then get it blessed, what is involved? Do you still have to do pre-cana and counseling? I know it can vary from church to church and depends on the priest, etc.

Thank you!

[BrideToBe82]

yeah, the Catholic church and I are in a fight right now...I feel like they are being very difficult for no reason whatsoever...it drives me batty seriously. It seems to me that the Catholic church is in no position to JUDGE anyone and I don't see how getting married at Disney hurts anyone's catholicism!!! :rolleyes2 I am getting married at a Vineyard and had initially wanted to have my priest do the ceremony...OH NO...of course not. I'm such a little sinner y'all and of course I need all the help I can get due to my blackened little soul and the beauty of vineyard is not holy enough for Father Flannigan! So I went and really sinned and found me non denominational Rev. Barry Hobbs off of the internet and Father Flannigan can go sit on a tack SO THERE!

My grandmother (who lives in Ireland) actually said (after I explained the issue) "Oh Mother Most Merciful, well we'll have to call the Pope then love, he'll have a lovely chat with this Father Flannigan and everything will be grand!" :rotfl: See Nana believes that because she is Irish which is where "real" catholics are from, that the Pope would OF COURSE speak with her as it is a matter of grave importance! :rotfl:

I'm feeling your pain babe...we'll get a blessing later if we have to, but seriously, I'll just bless myself and my family and be done with it! (grrr, obviously I'm still a little irked... :rolleyes: )

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Haha this is the funniest thing I have heard all day. I was born and raised catholic and will be having a DFTW without a priests blessing!!

[JandJ]

I know no one's posted on this thread in quite awhile, but DF and I just got engaged a couple weeks ago and are running into all the same Catholic Church problems mentioned here.

If you have a wedding outside of the Church and then get it blessed, what is involved? Do you still have to do pre-cana and counseling? I know it can vary from church to church and depends on the priest, etc.

Thank you!
When my cousin had his marriage blessed (they were married in his mom's backyard) they knew the priest very well and he did the blessing without any pre-cana or anything. They had it in a small room, not in the main sanctuary, with a few family members present. It was very low-key, no wedding dress, bouquet, or anything like that, just a simple blessing. That was many years ago, though, and like you said it depends on the particular church and the priest. (They have since gotten divorced and he re-married outside the church, but that's another topic!)

[JJClemson]

The weekend after or DFTW, we are having a reception in my home town in NJ. My priest will not bless us. He says we would have to do the whole pre-cana, counseling, and have another ceremony. However, DF and I are moving to Atlanta at the end of this year, and we are talking w/ a priest there. He told us to contact him again closer to our wedding and "he will see what he can do". It really does vary church to church. I do not know why this has to be so difficult :sad2:

[Cinderella16]

Wow ladies, this thread has had me laughing my butt off :rotfl: I was raised catholic and my parents and entire family are very catholic, not to mention we are Italian so its like being catholic times ten:rotfl2: . Well I have mentioned the fact to my mother that one day I want a DFTW, and the first thing she told me was that it wouldnt be a real marriage, and the church would never approve of it. :confused3 She even went as far to tell me that I cannot marry my bf becuse he is not baptized...(i later showed her an email I received from our preist on this issue, which proved her wrong :cool1: dont get me wrong I love my mom but sometimes i wish she would get her facts straight!!!) My bf is not catholic and frankly doesnt even really want to be married in a church if he can avoid it, but he did say we could get it blessed, if this is even possible...I hate how it varies from priest to priest, why is it so difficult??? My bf and I have decided on a DFTW when the time comes, but I sorta dread the day I send out my save the dates to my side of the family, oh the drama that will cause. Oh well, i keep telling myself that those who I want there most will be there.

Sorry if this is alot of rambling and babbling but I had to vent :)

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

I'm Catholic...went to Catholic school and everything!! I'm enjoying this thread. We got married at Disney and have not yet gone through the classes or the vows to consider yourself married in the Catholic Church. My DH is Catholic too. Marriage is one of the 7 sacraments, so I guess I didn't complete that in the Church's eyes. I have a certificate for all the other sacraments...haha...Oh well...

[JandJ]

I'm Catholic...went to Catholic school and everything!! I'm enjoying this thread. We got married at Disney and have not yet gone through the classes or the vows to consider yourself married in the Catholic Church. My DH is Catholic too. Marriage is one of the 7 sacraments, so I guess I didn't complete that in the Church's eyes. I have a certificate for all the other sacraments...haha...Oh well...
That's one reason we won't ever have it blessed in a Catholic Church, I never made the sacrament of Confirmation, and have no desire to go through all that. Plus, DH is not Catholic. He'd do it if I wanted it but it's not a big deal to me. I was raised Catholic and, like you, went to Catholic school and even a Jesuit university, but I really don't practice any more. My mom was very Catholic but she had no problem with us having a Disney Wedding (I wish she'd been there to see it . . .) but an aunt, who I am not even that close to, she raised all kinds of fuss! She saw the pictures of Rev. Jack marrying us and was all "Who is that? That's not a priest!!" Like it was any of her business :sad2:

Where you get married has no bearing on how wonderful or blessed your marriage will be. My wedding was perfect, it was what DH and I wanted, and that's all that matters to us.

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

That's one reason we won't ever have it blessed in a Catholic Church, I never made the sacrament of Confirmation, and have no desire to go through all that. Plus, DH is not Catholic. He'd do it if I wanted it but it's not a big deal to me. I was raised Catholic and, like you, went to Catholic school and even a Jesuit university, but I really don't practice any more. My mom was very Catholic but she had no problem with us having a Disney Wedding (I wish she'd been there to see it . . .) but an aunt, who I am not even that close to, she raised all kinds of fuss! She saw the pictures of Rev. Jack marrying us and was all "Who is that? That's not a priest!!" Like it was any of her business :sad2:

Where you get married has no bearing on how wonderful or blessed your marriage will be. My wedding was perfect, it was what DH and I wanted, and that's all that matters to us.


I agree with you 100%! My DH and I pretty much have the same feeling you do about the Catholic Church now and we don't practice any more either. My entire family is not Catholic, so it wasn't really a huge issue. My Dad is Catholic and my brother and I were raised Catholic. My Mom became Catholic, but not until I was around 9 years old.

I don't know if it's something my DH and I will ever do. I agree with it being too much work. You have to be in the right mindset and place in your life to do it. I think you should only do it if it feels right for you and it's what you truly want. I know it took a long time for my Mom to actually feel that way to want to become Catholic.

I knew I never wanted to get married in a church because that just isn't me. We did pick the closest Christian/Catholic ceremony for ourselves and our guests. That was very nice. :)

[Midnight Belle]

I know the rules, for some crazy reason, the Catholic church will not let you marry at Disney

My husband and I are both Catholics and we were married at the Disney Wedding Pavilion back on NYE 97, our cannon was actually fine about this, because I thought like you that in the eyes of the Catholic we were not married but this is just not true. Our cannon is an elderly man so I am just thankful that he understands and supports modern views.

I therefore did not have 'another' wedding but just had a big party in London on our return.

Good Luck.

[JJClemson]

My husband and I are both Catholics and we were married at the Disney Wedding Pavilion back on NYE 97, our cannon was actually fine about this, because I thought like you that in the eyes of the Catholic we were not married but this is just not true. Our cannon is an elderly man so I am just thankful that he understands and supports modern views.

I therefore did not have 'another' wedding but just had a big party in London on our return.

Good Luck.


What I meant was, the Catholic church will not let a priest marry you at Disney. We are hopefully having our DFTW blessed by a Catholic priest at a later date. Some priests are okay with it, some are not. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed!

[disneybridetobe]

LOL I think I had the same color hair as your DD :rotfl2: when I was 16

So, so true. I always say that my DH let it go on alot longer just to further aggravate his father who thought he was depressed b/c of the way he dressed LOL.

Come to think about it, he still wears the Doc Martens, he just replaced the fishnets on his arms with Tatoos :lmao: It's ok He has Jack Skellington and Sally so it's ok by me and DD ;)Thank god he is a brick layer and not a buisnessman :rolleyes1

But in any case everyone knows mommy is the one that needs to be normal :rotfl2:

I had pink and purple hair in high school! (Honor roll!) :cheer2:
Everyone said I'd grow out of it- some couldn't wait, some adjusted; and I have grown out of it to a point, but I too replaced the fishnets with tattoos. ;) I know that I'm going to be a great mother and the coolest tattooed granny ever.

[Deesknee]

I was not raised Catholic. I was raised Protestant. I was married in the Catholic church. The priest at the time asked if we knew the catholic law on birth control. We replied yes... we know the catholic law. He laughed, replied as long as you know and went on to the next question. That was 24 yrs ago. He also told us we could get married by a priest anywhere we wanted...for a price. His words not mine, I swear. Now fast forward about 15 yrs. My db dies in an accident. He had been married in the Catholic church, he was raising his kids Catholic, he had been divorced for many years before he died. Noone knew if he was Catholic or Protestant as we had been raised. We buried him with full rites in the Catholic Church. We explained the situation. The priest (different one that had married me, but the same church), was wonderful. A year later I went thru the RCIA program in that church and became Catholic. I don't get on a soap box. I am planning on renewing my vows in WDW next November. I pray the priest who officiated our ceremony all those years ago will agree to do it. I feel for anyone who has any tough choices during the planning of anything important like a wedding. I sincerely do.
I strongly agree the Catholic church should change some of their views. At the same time though, one of the things I admire about my piers is their die hard stance on things they strongly believe in.
BTW, I'm from the Boston area. Huge area for the priest scandal. That is still a very hard pill for me to swallow. My heart breaks for those victims and their families.

[RBennett]

I'll tell you what happened with our family; my DB and DSIL both worked for Disney, got married at Disney, and then when they came back home, they had a very small ceremony at our church which was basically a vow renewal by our priest, that basically blessed the marriage, etc. Hope that helps!

[dannirose]

DF and I are both Catholic and while we expected to catch a certain amount of flack about not getting married in the Church, we were surprised where it came from.

My family (all Catholic) are fine with it, my stepfather and his family (Greek Orthodox) think we should be getting married in the Greek Church even though we aren't, DF's mother (Episcopalian) wanted it at her Church and has made some comments about our "very untraditional" wedding. :rolleyes:

The priests at my church are all fine with us having a destination wedding and then blessing the union as long as we do the pre-cana.

The biggest complaints came from one of the nuns at my church who coordinates the CCD program I teach in - she thinks I am not setting a good example for the students. She was very unhappy to find out the priests agreed to bless the union after our wedding at Disney and tried to change the pastor's mind. Thankfully he told her it wasn't her place to say or do anything about it.

Btw, I do know that the parish I grew up in does not like to do the convalidation ceremonies - it really does vary by parish, so if your parish is giving you a hard time I would suggest checking out others within your archdiocese.

[LiLIrishChick63]

I'm catholic too. What I am doing is getting married at the church on Saturday and then having my DFTW on Monday. So basically it is kind of a vow renewal at Disney. Reverand Jack will not be signing my marriage licence he will just be perfoming the ceremony. My priest also told us he could not marry us if we were married at Disney first, don't know why, I think it has something to do with signing the licence.


the reason a priest won't marry you at DW is because they don't marry anyone outside of a church. some strange thing i guess. luckily i won't have this problem, as i am no longer catholic, but it really sucks for those who are, that want to get married in DW

[c&k]

we got married at disney on august 4th. and then we got our marraige blessed by the catholic church last week sept 6th. our priest had no problem doing that at all, we had told him the whole story that we were getting married at disney first.

[SandraVB79]

Get married at Disney first, then come to Belgium, and have your Catholic wedding in a beautiful old church/ cathedral/ whatever you want over here.

In Belgium, you can't get married for church if you haven't had a civil wedding anyways... and priests here are rather liberal.

[cantwait!]

We are getting married in Hawaii (outside too) and we are in the process of getting the Bishop of Boston (where I grew up) to send a letter to the Bishop of Hawaii saying that he thinks it is ok for us to do that...then the Bishop of Hawaii has to approve. BIG PROCESS.

[Tiggerific04]

So who did everyone have as an officiant? DF and I would like something as close to a Catholic ceremony as possible.

[dannirose]

So who did everyone have as an officiant? DF and I would like something as close to a Catholic ceremony as possible.

I believe most of the officiants can add some Catholic style traditions and prayers to the ceremony. We are leaning towards Rev. Knox.

[JJClemson]

I believe most of the officiants can add some Catholic style traditions and prayers to the ceremony. We are leaning towards Rev. Knox.

Yes, Rev. Jack Day is doing a Catholic-ish ceremony for us. My parents are hoping my grandparents won't realize he is not a priest :rotfl: Wishful thinking... But I believe dannirose is correct, most officiants do offer Catholic-ish options.

[Surfingstitch]

Long story made short:

We originally wanted to have a DFTW until DF's mother wanted her to have a Catholic wedding.

Since she is close to her mother, we decided to have a catholic wedding here at home in Washington.

Keep in mind, she has not been to church in 7 years and the church that she attended growing up has a wierd center alter we started looking for other churches to be married in.

7 churches later, we found the perfect church for her; long aisle way, stained windows and all.

We have our first meeting in June and setup our first planning meeting on July 7th at 5pm.

We show up that day and find out that the Father and the Coordinator aren't even there. They went to a funeral and didn't tell us about it or cancel our appointment.

One week later we recieved an email to reschedule for August 11th at 4pm, a date that the church picked.

This time we get an email at 10am the day of that there is another funeral that they have to attend and will need to reschedule.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :furious:

At this point I so against a catholic wedding since I am not Catholic, but I decided that I will give them one more shot :crazy: for DF.

Finally we had our first "offical" meeting on August 25th.

The Father had no problems with us living together, just that we need to attend the marriage encounter weekend and that we each get a copy of our baptismism records.

[Tiggerific04]

Has anyone looked into having an Old Catholic priest marry them? From what I've read, they believe almost all the same things as Roman Catholic (except for the Pope, celibacy, and something else I can't remember right now) and all of their sacraments have to be accepted by the RC Church. I found this church in Orlando and emailed the priest but haven't heard anything back: www.saintthomasmorechurch.com/ (http://www.saintthomasmorechurch.com/). I'm not sure it would work for us anyway since he would be counted as a guest and we already have exactly 18 guests. Just thought someone else might be interested :goodvibes