The Catholic Wedding
The Catholic Church has strict rules on marriages and the issue of divorce. They still on the whole have not accepted re-marriage or divorcees. You can re-marry within the Catholic faith only if your first marriage has not been recognised by the church and this will need to be discussed with the priest. If you are intending to marry in a Catholic church there are a few rules you must adhere to: firstly you or your partner must be Roman Catholic, next the priest will ask you a few questions regarding your religious outlook, leading to keeping the faith within your marriage and bringing up your children as Catholics. I would at this point strongly recommend you arrange the dates well in advance as the Catholic church has many religious events in its calendar and may place restrictions at certain times of the year.

The Preparations Prior to the day itself you will need to get together with the priest to discuss arrangements. He will help you through the choice of hymns and readings and give you an indication on guest list size for the particular church. It is not unusual to have a couple of rehearsals for all involved.

The Service
The service can be broken into two parts, the marriage itself, which is a religious uniting of husband and wife, but also includes the legal and civil aspects. The second part is usually performed when both are practising Catholics, this is the Mass where both receive Communion. In mixed marriages the Mass is skipped but the service remains the same.

	The Bride and her father (or whoever has been chosen to give her away) walk down the aisle to join the Groom and Best Man, usually accompanied by the wedding march (the choice is yours).
	The priest will give a short introduction followed by some readings from the Bible. The readings are chosen by the couple and are read by someone of their choice.
	A chosen hymn is sung followed by another reading (psalm).
	The priest will now read a chosen gospel followed by a sermon.
	The exchanging of vows religiously then civil.
	Blessing of the rings and the couple.
	Prayers are read.
	Mass is taken with another Blessing and Communion.
	Final blessing.
	The couple and their witnesses sign the registry while hymns/music is played.
	The happy couple make their way out of the church.
Token of Thanks The church does not usually charge a fee for the priest's time, which does include some legal paperwork on your behalf, but a small donation £80 - £100  in an envelope is usually given to the priest at the end of the service by the bride's father. The flowers used to decorate the church are left as a token of thanks. Don't forget to invite him to your reception. Church of England Civil Wedding

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