Wedding Etiquette and Inviting Priests

[EnglishTeacher]

Say that you are planning a wedding Mass, and that you are planning to have your parish’s pastor be the main celebrant. But say that you also have 2 or 3 other priests among your good friends. How do you go about inviting them to the wedding? Do you ask them all to concelebrate, or is it okay to just invite them as guests, if you can’t afford to give stipends to three priests? When you do invite them, is it proper to put “Fr. Smith and guest” on the invitation, or is it better just to put “Fr. Smith,” since “and guest” tends imply that the invitee may bring a date?

I haven’t been Catholic all that long and don’t have much experience with Catholic weddings. I am not planning my wedding yet, but would just like to know the proper etiquette

 

[jazzy0710]

My parish priest goes to all kinds of weddings of various denominations.

I would just address their invites with “Father.J.Smith” or whatever the name is that was just an example.

 

[Corki]

Say that you are planning a wedding Mass, and that you are planning to have your parish’s pastor be the main celebrant. But say that you also have 2 or 3 other priests among your good friends. How do you go about inviting them to the wedding? Do you ask them all to concelebrate, or is it okay to just invite them as guests, if you can’t afford to give stipends to three priests? When you do invite them, is it proper to put “Fr. Smith and guest” on the invitation, or is it better just to put “Fr. Smith,” since “and guest” tends imply that the invitee may bring a date?

I haven’t been Catholic all that long and don’t have much experience with Catholic weddings. I am not planning my wedding yet, but would just like to know the proper etiquette

It’s not up to you to invite them to concelebrate. It’s between those invited priests and the pastor. It would be good to let your pastor know that there are priests in the list of invitees and let them communicate about it if they choose.

One lovely way I have seen this handled is for the “guest” priests to assist in the distribution of Communion which can, depending on the size of the wedding, eliminate the need for any EMHCs.

 

[EnglishTeacher]

It’s not up to you to invite them to concelebrate. It’s between those invited priests and the pastor. It would be good to let your pastor know that there are priests in the list of invitees and let them communicate about it if they choose.

Very helpful to know; I didn’t realize this.

One lovely way I have seen this handled is for the “guest” priests to assist in the distribution of Communion which can, depending on the size of the wedding, eliminate the need for any EMHCs.

Definitely! I wouldn’t have EMHCs at my wedding, anyway – I think it’s very rare that they are actually necessary, especially if it’s not a huge wedding.

 

[Joe_5859]

We had four priests at my wedding (one celebrant and three concelebrants). I remember letting the pastor know of our priest friend who we wanted to do the homily. I’m sure at some point we communicated to him of the other priests who would be there. But we also asked the other priests to concelebrate. Maybe we did it the wrong way.

We did not give a stipend to each priest. Again, maybe we did it the wrong way.

 

[Mount_Carmel]

My wife and myself ended up with two priests officiating and another among the guests/congregation. We also had another priest friend who was in Rome offer Mass in St. Peter’s for us at the same time as our Nuptial Mass. So we were ‘quadruply’ blessed.

Apart from our PP the other priest officiating was a neighbour and friend and also doubled as the Italian Consulate. His house proudly bore a coat of arms and the words ‘Agenzia Consulare D’Italia’.