Wedding on Easter Sunday Okay?

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Trissie_Tris

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[edited] I would like to be married on Easter Sunday. But the ceremony itself won’t be during a mass; there aren’t a lot of priests in Guyana, so on Easter Sunday only a few churches in the entire country have a mass in the morning, my parish just has the vigil Saturday night.
I would like to do this for two main reasons; 1) Easter is marked as our anniversary & 2) Easter can be viewed as a time for new life & one can say that marriage is the starting of a new life (together). So, I just like the symbolism & thought behind it.
An official date hasn’t been set, but it was just a thought.
Is there anything wrong with that?
 
You do know that Easter falls on a different date every year, because it’s a movable feast don’t you?

Easter isn’t just one day, it’s an entire season, from the Easter Vigil Mass until Pentecost. So you’ve got 50 days to choose from…With a little planning you can pick a date that will always be part of the Easter Season.
 
Magdalen is right that the date changes. In the next five years Easter falls on April 5, March 27, April 16, April 1, and April 21.

I’m not sure you’ll find a priest to marry you on Easter, even without a Mass. (And why wouldn’t you want a Mass?) After the Triduum liturgies and Easter Masses, priests (and everyone else – choir directors, sacristans, etc.) are just plain tired.

But it’s not forbidden.
 
It’s not forbidden, but I’d be surprised if you would find a priest willing to do it. They have a LOT of work during Holy Week, and they have the Triduum and the Easter Vigil to celebrate. The Easter masses are long already. I would be surprised if the priest wishes to extend it even longer with a wedding.

My wife and I got married on the Saturday after Easter. It worked out great, and we didn’t have to buy any flowers for the wedding as the parish was already decorated with flowers for Easter season.

Have some sympathy for the priest and see if some date during the Easter season works better instead of Easter Sunday.
 
Trissie_Tris said:
[edited] I would like to be married on Easter Sunday. But the ceremony itself won’t be during a mass; there aren’t a lot of priests in Guyana, so on Easter Sunday only a few churches in the entire country have a mass in the morning, my parish just has the vigil Saturday night.
I would like to do this for two main reasons; 1) Easter is marked as our anniversary & 2) Easter can be viewed as a time for new life & one can say that marriage is the starting of a new life (together). So, I just like the symbolism & thought behind it.
An official date hasn’t been set, but it was just a thought.
Is there anything wrong with that?
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I don’t know of anything that forbids it. But I have never ever met a priest who would sign off on that! Ever. Easter is one of the busiest times for a priest the whole year.

The date of Easter moves each year, so your anniversary reason is gone. And honestly, I think your reasoning over all lends itself to a selfish aspect of a wedding that many brides have fallen into.🤷 That being said, I did get married on my birthday. Now, it was not really planned that way, it is just the way the schedule worked out but I have often said it was the best Birthday present I ever got.
 
There’s nothing that directly forbids the celebration of a wedding on Easter Sunday.

That having been said, it’s probably the busiest day of the year for priests (between their pastoral responsibilities, and enjoying the holiday with their families like everyone else), so that ought to be taken into consideration.

Also, since the priest is likely already celebrating the maximum number of Masses he’s allowed to on that day, if you want a Nuptial Mass, it’d need to be on of the public Masses on that day, and you’d need to expect many people you don’t know.

It would also place a burden on those people who would need to travel to your wedding, and be away from their families on Easter.
 
L_Marshall said:
There’s nothing that directly forbids the celebration of a wedding on Easter Sunday.
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There’s nothing that prohibits the celebration of a wedding but nuptial masses cannot be celebrated on Easter Sunday, or any time from Holy Thursday through the to the end of the Easter Octave. Even without a mass however, as others have said, good luck trying to find a priest to celebrate it since Easter is the busy time of the year for priests.
 
InThePew said:
There’s nothing that prohibits the celebration of a wedding but nuptial masses cannot be celebrated on Easter Sunday, or any time from Holy Thursday through the to the end of the Easter Octave. Even without a mass however, as others have said, good luck trying to find a priest to celebrate it since Easter is the busy time of the year for priests.
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Not sure if it’s just a local thing here or. It but I’ve heard no funerals during Holy Week until after Easter as well.
 
Can someone provide a citation for no Nuptial Masses during the Octave of Easter?

All the documents I’ve found only forbid marriage during the Triduum, but I don’t have all my books with me.
 
L_Marshall said:
Can someone provide a citation for no Nuptial Masses during the Octave of Easter?

All the documents I’ve found only forbid marriage during the Triduum, but I don’t have all my books with me.
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GIRM 372: Ritual Masses are connected to the celebration of certain Sacraments or Sacramentals. They are prohibited on Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter, on solemnities, on the days within the Octave of Easter, on the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day), on Ash Wednesday, and during Holy Week, taking due account of the norms given in the ritual books or in the Masses themselves.
 
InThePew said:
GIRM 372: Ritual Masses are connected to the celebration of certain Sacraments or Sacramentals. They are prohibited on Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter, on solemnities, on the days within the Octave of Easter, on the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day), on Ash Wednesday, and during Holy Week, taking due account of the norms given in the ritual books or in the Masses themselves.
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Thank you
 
Weddings were forbidden during the great fasting seasons and during the great feasts from ancient times. The reason being a wedding is a joyous occasion and fasts are penitential in nature. And you wouldn’t celebrate a wedding during one of the great feasts because it takes away from the feast itself. All of our joyousness should be focused on the feast.
 
zz912 said:
It’s not forbidden, but I’d be surprised if you would find a priest willing to do it. They have a LOT of work during Holy Week, and they have the Triduum and the Easter Vigil to celebrate. The Easter masses are long already. I would be surprised if the priest wishes to extend it even longer with a wedding.

My wife and I got married on the Saturday after Easter. It worked out great, and we didn’t have to buy any flowers for the wedding as the parish was already decorated with flowers for Easter season.

Have some sympathy for the priest and see if some date during the Easter season works better instead of Easter Sunday.
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My wife and I were also married on Easter Saturday. My parents were married on Easter Monday. Easter Monday (the day after) Easter Sunday may be the closest you can get a priest to have a wedding mass.

I’ve been to a wedding on a normal Thursday afternoon mass (an older couple) where, in place of the homily, the couple made their vows. A marriage can be as simple as that. If that is the case, you can probably have a wedding at any mass that does not have a lot of other ritual to it – so Triduum masses would be out. But Easter week masses would be ok.

On the other hand, if you want a fancy wedding mass, you have to find a priest who is not exhausted by the Triduum or other seasonal activity.

Oh… we celebrate our anniversary as a movable feast 🙂
 
The OP has noted that his parish ONLY has an Easter Vigil mass - no masses on Easter Sunday itself - and that his wedding ceremony will not be a mass. This information was provided in the OP but a lot of the answers seem to ignore these points. If there is a true priest shortage in Guyana, as the OP implies, and not even a priest available for mass on Easter Sunday, I would imagine that the OP’s wedding will not be witnessed by a priest…which changes things a lot. Likely a deacon or even a lay person (who can be authorized by the bishop in places with a true priest shortage) would witness the wedding. Perhaps the OP can elaborate?
 
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