http://boards.weddingbee.com/ Weddingbee Boards Topic: Secular wedding but want to include some Catholic rituals; Ideas anyone? en Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:45:25 +0000 http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-249384 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:07:03 +0000 twoangels 249384@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>There's Catholic liturgy and there are Catholic cultural wedding traditions that have more to do with ethnic cultural traditions (where people came from prodiminantly Catholic countries) that are not a part of the liturgy.</p> <p>I would focus on cultural traditions rather than patchworking aspects of Catholic liturgy into a non-Catholic ceremony.&nbsp; In fact, as a devout Catholic, I would be highly offended if I attended a secular ceremony where poorly understood aspects of the Catholic liturgy were patchworked into a secular service, as without the sacramental theology, they lose their significance and very much would be more of a mockery of the real thing.&nbsp; </p> <p>What I would do is look at your cultural heritage.&nbsp; Is your family Irish Catholic?&nbsp; Are they Italian?&nbsp; Mexican?&nbsp; Spanish?&nbsp; If so, ask your family what the family traditions were?&nbsp; You might also want to look into the book &quot;Bride's Book of Wedding Traditions.&quot;</p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-249379 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:59:22 +0000 worldtrekkerbride 249379@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>Thanks for all the ideas! None of our very catholic family members are being vocal about our wedding being non-catholic which maybe to the fact we haven't all out said &quot;it's not going to be in a catholic church or overseen by a catholic priest&quot;.&nbsp;We really want&nbsp;more of a nice gesture, geared mainly to our grandparents, out of respect for their beliefs. Neither&nbsp;set of our parents are devout catholics and&nbsp;mainly they all just want us to have&nbsp;the type of day we wish which makes this religion question SOOOO much easier to answer.&nbsp; </p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-249138 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:27:50 +0000 MissPickle 249138@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>Secular weddings have readings and music too so that isn't really Catholic. Neither is a unity candle or sand ceremony.</p> <p>There aren't really Catholic elements per say to add to a secular wedding since they true Catholic wedding is the <strong>sacrament </strong>overseen by the priest between husband and wife which is witnessed by your guests.&nbsp; The &quot;wedding&quot; is held inside of a mass which makes it longer.&nbsp; It also doesn't seem appropriate to have elements of a Catholic ceremony if you don't follow or ascribe to the churches teachings.&nbsp; You might end up offending some of your more devout guests. </p> <p>Good luck. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-249129 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:06:24 +0000 Tanya123 249129@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>Well, may&nbsp;I ask, are they wanting the Catholic aspects?&nbsp; Are you trying to smooth over some objections to a non-Catholic wedding?&nbsp; Is it just your idea to do something nice for your families?</p> <p>I guess my reason for asking is that, if you are trying to smooth over some resistance to a non-catholic wedding, particularly if they are strong Catholics, having a few Catholic moments in there really doesn't cut it.&nbsp; You're not getting married in a Catholic church by a priest, and therefore not going to be married in the eyes of the church.&nbsp; So if your parents are die hards, I imagine that won't bridge the gap.&nbsp; (But I don't know if they are.)</p> <p>If this is something that you are just wanting to do, maybe more as a cultural thing (?) I would say you could add some religious hymns or the Our Father, as pps have mentioned.</p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-249122 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:43:05 +0000 TallBride 249122@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>Why not do a catholic wedding? As Cine said, it doesn't have to be a full mass with all the bells and whistles... plus having your marriage recognized by the catholic church is that much more offical, plus you get free premartial counseling which I strongly recommend no matter how solid your relationship. </p> <p>We did the whole sha bang, and yes it was long, and yes we had kids and most people had never been to a catholic wedding and were very intrigued.&nbsp; </p> <p>However, you can do a flowers to mary type thing, with the ave maria. You can do the lords prayer, or as pp said readings can follow a mass format.&nbsp; If you two still have your baptismal candles, you can use those for a unity candle ( I orginally did not want to do a unity candle but the pictures from it are amazing) </p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-249060 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:41:52 +0000 chelseamorning 249060@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>Things that spring to mind are you could do bible readings, a psalm, say the lord's prayer...a lot of catholic rituals are religious! </p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-249002 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:21:55 +0000 cinemaparadiso 249002@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>Hi!</p> <p>I just got back from my cousin's beautiful catholic wedding yesterday--except that it wasn't too traditionally catholic. There was no mass, no communion, they just had a couple of readings and then the vows, unity candle, blessing of rings, lord's prayer, etc. It took like 20 minutes, start to finish, and it was all about their love. </p> <p>Perhaps you could talk to your officiant (provided he is Catholic) and see if they could do a service more like that. </p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-249000 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:20:46 +0000 Gilneas 249000@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>How about including more traditionally Catholic vows or ring vows?&nbsp; You can always remove the God elements, if that's important to you.&nbsp; Bible readings, a declaration of support from the guests, a ring blessing or final blessing, or a unity candle are some other more traditional elements that you can include. </p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-248996 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:16:37 +0000 tessabella76 248996@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>First of all, welcome!</p> <p>What about including some readings? Or some songs? Sorry I'm probably not much help. I was raised Catholic but haven't practiced for a few years. </p> http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/secular-wedding-but-want-to-include-some-catholic-rituals-ideas-anyone#post-248992 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:12:51 +0000 worldtrekkerbride 248992@http://boards.weddingbee.com/ <p>Hello! Hope everyone had a good July 4th!</p> <p>I need some advice about including some Catholic aspects into my secular wedding. My fiance and I come from Catholic families however we do not want a Catholic wedding. But out of respect for our families and the religion we grew up practicing, we would like to have some Catholic aspect including in our non-denominational/secular wedding.</p> <p>Any ideas?</p>