Sacrament of Marriage

[mea21183]

I don’t know quite how to phrase my question, so I apologize in advance for the length of this thread…

I grew up Catholic, and continue to practice it today. In 2007 I married in the Church, but the marriage was shortlived. After two years, we filed for divorce. Recently I received an annulment.

I know that in the future I want to marry again, and I would like to marry in the Catholic Church. I’m just having a hard time seeing myself throw a huge wedding ceremony again. All my extended family is out of state, so to ask that they come again would seem selfish.

So my question is this: Does the Sacrament of Marriage mean that I have to have a Catholic Mass or service? (Eucharist, readings, homily, ect) Or can I simply get married at the courthouse and have a priest bless my marriage, thus completing the Sacrament of Marriage? (I don’t mean to sound like it’s a “check off” list, so I hope you all understand I do not intend to mock this in any sort of way).

Thanks, and God Bless!

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

As a Catholic you must marry in a Catholic Church unless the bishop gives you a dispensation to marry outside of it.

That being said you do not have to have a big elaborate wedding. The Sacrament of Marrriage does not need to take place inside the Mass.

At a parish I used to attend, a couple who worked at the parish and had no living close relatives got married at one of the regular Sunday Masses. This could be an option.

 

[Waiting]

As a Catholic you must marry in a Catholic Church unless the bishop gives you a dispensation to marry outside of it.

That being said you do not have to have a big elaborate wedding. The Sacrament of Marrriage does not need to take place inside the Mass.

At a parish I used to attend, a couple who worked at the parish and had no living close relatives got married at one of the regular Sunday Masses. This could be an option.

Talk to your pastor. A small, private ceremony, with or without a Mass, is possible. My sister was married, pre-Vatican II, in the rectory.

 

[Zsofia_A]

Me and my husband are both catholic but we only returned into the Church recently, we had our wedding in the courthouse. However we would like to get married in the Church but as you said we would not want a big wedding again, his family is scattered in the US, mine is in Hungary So I am interested in this topic as well.
As Waiting and ByzCat wrote, there are other options that do not mean huge wedding ceremony.

God bless you all

 

[joanofarc2008]

May I suggest you actually meet your future spouse and see what they may want or desire as that may play a role in it as well. But yes you will need to get married in the Church but it does not need not be elaborate.