Who gives away a bride with no family?

[1ke]

It goes as far as saying that ideally the couple are at the back of the church welcoming their guests to the ceremony.

We did this, and it was the most awesome thing EVER. I highly recommend greeting guests as they arrive.

 

[browneyes106]

My friend was in a similar situation a couple of years. Her dad died when she was 13 and her mom died 10 years later. Her dad was her grandmother’s only child but my friend’s grandfather had 4 kids from previous marriages. My friend’s dad only meet his half siblings about three times in his life. Her mom only has two brothers but my friend only sees them every couple of years. For her wedding my friend decided to have her godfather walk her down the aisle. She spent more time around him than her uncles. Maybe your friend could have a similar father figure walk her down the aisle.

 

[KCT]

Read the Rite. The **norm **is for the bride and groom to walk together in the procession. The priest **can **allow the bride to be escorted by her father or another.

So, processing together is what they **should **do, and allowing something else is what the priest **may **do.

My daughter and her fiance walked down together. It was beautiful.

If they opt for the other way, is she close enough to her future father in law to ask him?

 

[LilyM]

I say whichever male OR female relative or friend (who says it need only be a male?) she feels closest to - or by all means alone if that’s her preference.

I for one would want my father to walk me down the aisle - it’s just so appropriately symbolic of ‘leaving mother and father and cleaving to’ your spouse, somehow.

By the way, the ‘you may kiss the bride’ bit is, to my knowledge, not part of the Wedding Rite, doesn’t stop priests from adding it at the end.

 

[Phemie]

I can’t say that I’ve ever been to a Catholic wedding that had the ‘kiss the bride’ part. I know the priest who celebrated our wedding wouldn’t allow it. I knew that in advance so didn’t even think about it. He told me what I was going to do and how and that’s just what I did.

 

[LilyM]

I can’t say that I’ve ever been to a Catholic wedding that had the ‘kiss the bride’ part. I know the priest who celebrated our wedding wouldn’t allow it. I knew that in advance so didn’t even think about it. He told me what I was going to do and how and that’s just what I did.

Not certain that all the weddings I’ve been to had the priest say the words - I’m pretty sure at least one or two did. If memory serves the couples certainly all kissed at the end though!

I suspect if it were me getting married I wouldn’t be able to help myself - I’d probably go right ahead and kiss anyway, whether the priest said anything or not.

 

[chevalier]

By the way, the ‘you may kiss the bride’ bit is, to my knowledge, not part of the Wedding Rite, doesn’t stop priests from adding it at the end.

Almost everyone would have to answer, “I already have!” I guess.

 

[LilyM]

Almost everyone would have to answer, “I already have!” I guess.

‘Lots of times!’

 

[anna99]

That’s so cool! I think I might end up doing this with my fiance too… If we do this and participate in the procession together, are my parents part of the procession as well?

We did this, and it was the most awesome thing EVER. I highly recommend greeting guests as they arrive.

 

[Christy_Beth]

My daughter walked herself down the isle. Her dad was still alive, but hadn’t been a part of her life for years before that. Her Grandad (my dad) was dead as well. She might have asked another male relative to do so, but decided to go it alone. It still made for a nice wedding.

 

[chevalier]

I thought about doing that but I have the WORST balance and thought it’d be best if someone was besides me in case I did a face plant on the way to the alter

Pro tip: Knowing what you do when you pick the groom may help avoid facepalms during the wedding ceremony.

Why not walk down the aisle together?

The whole business of “giving the bride away” is not Catholic. It actually goes back to the times when women were considered property and the fathers literally GAVE their daughters to a man.

So I vote for either walking down herself or walking down together.

Actually, I live in a country that’s been Catholic for many centuries and I’ve yet got to see anything else than the bride and groom walking down the aisle together, starting from just before the church door, sometimes greeted by a priest there.

Just like any other type of explosives, women need to be guarded carefully and passed only from one qualified pair of hands into another, but they aren’t exactly the perpetual minors that old tradition in some countries made them out to be. There’s nothing wrong in walking together.

This is how it is properly done in the Catholic Church.

To the OP - if it’s going to be a Catholic wedding, then she is not being “given away” - she is giving herself in marriage to her husband, and he is also giving himself to her.

Yup, and no amount of a father’s consent can substitute for any missing consent in the bride.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

That’s so cool! I think I might end up doing this with my fiance too… If we do this and participate in the procession together, are my parents part of the procession as well?

You just resuscitated a thread that’s 3 years old.



And you started a thread on this issue - so why respond to this one?