The period leading up to a marriage is a busy, exciting and often stressful time. While your engagement, wedding preparations, reception and honeymoon are all important, the marriage ceremony – the gift of your promise to one another - is at the centre of the Christian celebration. Whilst your wedding day will be long remembered and cherished, your marriage - the daily reality of living out that promise - will continue long after the last piece of cake is eaten.
Preparation for marriage involves a process of discernment. It should be an affirming experience, as you and your fiancé develop a deeper understanding of one another and your readiness to enter married life.
Marriage in the Catholic tradition is a covenant – a sacred vow which, like God’s promise of love to us, can never be broken. From the beginning, God created man and woman to be joined as a sign of His love both to each other and to the world.
In the Catholic Church, Marriage is one of seven Sacraments - a sacred sign that presents to the world a deeper spiritual reality. A man and woman in marriage reveal the full, free, faithful and fruitful love that Jesus Christ has for each of us.
Couples are asked to give at least six months notice to the officiating priest or deacon. One month notice is obligatory by law, but the longer notice requested here allows for a calm and serious preparation for marriage.
Couples are counselled by the priest before marriage and are asked to attend a marriage preparation course. (See “When Two Become One” Marriage Preparation Course information below).
Sometimes people who have not been to Church for a while can be apprehensive about approaching the Church for a wedding. Since marriage can be a time of rediscovering one's faith and making a new start, you should not hesitate to discuss your situation with the priest.
When you wish to be married in the Catholic Church, you need to provide the priest with the following documents:
A Pre Nuptial Enquiry Form - can be completed as early as eighteen months before the wedding but, at a minimum, must be signed at least one month prior to the wedding day. This form is available from the priest.
Each will also need to present the following documents:
Birth Certificate - Available from Registrar of Births & Deaths
Baptism Certificate - This must have been issued in the past six months and is available from the parish where you were baptised. Send the parish your full name, estimated date of baptism and a stamped self-addressed envelope.
If either party has been married before, you must provide:
The Death certificate of their former spouse
A mixed marriage is where one party is a Catholic and the other party is not a Catholic, whether baptised or not. A Catholic, even when entering a mixed marriage must be married before a Catholic priest.
Permission can be given for a Catholic to marry one who is not Catholic provided that the Catholic promises to safeguard his/her own Catholic faith and to do all in his/her power to have the children of their marriage baptised and raised as Catholic.
The partner who is not a Catholic, though not required to make a promise must be properly informed before the wedding of the obligations and expectations the Church has of their Catholic spouse.