Post # 1
Member
1580 posts
Bumble bee
Are any of the Catholic brides sending invitations to the priest? It seems silly to invite them to the ceremony, as they are performing it… Are you inviting them to the reception? Will you send them a formal invitation or somehow giving them a different invitation?
Also, I am doing my marriage prep work at my church in VA, but getting married in PA (by a different priest). Should I send an invitation to the priest in VA that we are going all the prep work with? Obviously I don’t expect him to attend, but should I send him an invitation?
Post # 3
Member
6009 posts
Bee Keeper
We sent a formal invitation for the wedding and reception to our priest. I think it’s courteous to invite your priest to the reception, although whether that’s a formal invitiation or an informal, verbal invite probably depends on how well you know your priest. Personally, I wouldn’t send an invtiation to the priest who is doing your prep work unless you are close to him, though. Since the wedding is out of town, he’d probably decline anyway, right?
Post # 4
Member
1580 posts
Bumble bee
ok, thanks Mrs. Spring.
Anyone else have an opinion on this?
Post # 5
Member
950 posts
Busy bee
I’d like to invite our priest (haven’t gotten the final word from Fiance, yet) because he also confirmed me last year. He’s the pastor at my parish & knows me on sight, so my situation is a little different from yours. Fiance will probably agree, but haven’t decided if he’ll get the formal invite, or if I make something special for him, thanking him for his spiritual guidance. That’s what I’m doing, but my two bits on inviting priests in general…
It’s polite/nice thing to do. If you know the priest, or have friends or family members who are interested in getting know the faith or enjoy chatting up priests (my grams & godmother come to mind for me), I say invite. But if inviting your priest makes you feel nervous/awkward (you don’t know him that well, don’t know where to seat him, can’t think of anyone who will have anything in common with him), there’s no rule that says you HAVE to invite him. Maybe just have a parent or Best Man verbally invite & offer to drive?
Post # 6
Member
1134 posts
Bumble bee
I plan on dropping one off to him at the rectory. As well as one for the music minister who will be providing the ceremony music.
I think for vendors like the DJ or photographer who will already be at the reception, an invitation is not necessary.
Post # 7
Member
1 posts
Wannabee
By fiance and I have been going back and forth about if we should invite our priest. I think it would be a nice gesture, but since our wedding is going to be really small (40), a sit down dinner, and we don’t really know him very well… I’m thinking it just would be too awkward. But I don’t want to offend him by not inviting him… still not sure what we will do.
Post # 8
Member
646 posts
Busy bee
I just put a STD postcard in the mail yesterday for him. He was happy when he agreed to do the wedding, he knows my parents, but at the same time he’s a VERY, very busy and important guy in his parish, university, and he’s an editor of a magazine, it’s hard to reach him at times on the phone. See what i mean…I’d rather it seem silly than he forget the date.
He’s a cool guy, so I don’t think he’ll care about getting a save the date card in the mail. And when the time comes I’m going to send him an invite too.
I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, don’t worry about it. I think any normal priest would just see it as a formality. It’s not going to make any difference.
Post # 9
Member
1336 posts
Bumble bee
I don’t know about this one. On one hand, I feel like it would be the polite thing to do, but then again, I feel like people tend to stiffen up around priests, including myself. So I don’t know.
Post # 10
Member
1250 posts
Bumble bee
We are sending an invitation to the priest that is performing our ceremony. He’s very close to my family, and even though he’s already agreed to be a part of the wedding, we thought it was a nice gesture (and the invitation includes information about the reception afterwards, to which he is certainly invited!)
I hadn’t thought about sending one to the priest doing our pre-cana….I don’t think that we will, given, we have yet to meet him and the wedding is 3,000 miles away (live on east coast, getting married out west.)
Post # 11
Member
12 posts
Newbee
We send one to our priest. In a lot of Catholic weddings, the priest that performs the ceremony also says a blessing before dinner at the reception. You could always have someone else say the blessing, but most of the weddings in our family have had the priest do it.
And if you’re worried about people being uptight around the priest. I know a lot of priests that don’t mind knocking a few cold beers back, and they’re usually warmly accepted 🙂 Chug-a-lug…
Post # 12
Member
78 posts
Worker bee
@Jacqi: We’re going to send one to our priest. We love him (and I’m super proud of our invitations)