Sweet! Lookie what we got in the mail today:

It feels good to know that this is scheduled and we’ve mad a little bit more progress. Though now the letter itself is making me worry about bad weather. And what “comfortable clothing” really means. Sigh.

Getting married in a Catholic Church seems like it will be an interesting experience. So far, the mounds of paperwork have been! From what I’ve read online, it seems like the requirements can vary slightly from parish to parish, and that can get purty confusing for a non-Catholic like myself. I thought I might be able to shed some light on what the Diocese of Scranton requires for all the NEPA Brides & Grooms in a similar spot right now:

• First and foremost, you both need to be baptized by someone, at some point. You’ll need to get a copy of your baptism certificate from your home church, dated within the last 6 months.
• If you are Catholic, you will need permission to be married outside of your parish. I’m assuming this is fairly common cuz if you are both Catholic, you’ve gotta choose a church! This can be a written note or it can be a phone call between priests.
• Attend a Pre-Cana Conference, Engaged Encounter Weekend, or another form of approved pre-marriage counseling.
• We are required to have 2 letters each confirming we have never been married before. This can be as simple as a hand written note, and it could be provided by each set of parents, if you are able to do so.

PHEW! Once your priest has all of these, he can begin to process the paperwork. In our case, he will also have to ask for an exception to be made to allow me to marry in the church. It’s a common thing, and is generally approved, but one you should be aware of.  Our goal is to have much of this gathered and scheduled by the end of this month.

Were you surprised by the amount of paperwork involved in getting married?

Well, we had our first meeting at the King’s College chapel tonight, and I think it went pretty well! The priest in charge of the chapel remembers me from my time at the school, so it was nice to catch up a bit. We used the time to get to know each other a little bit, since he didn’t know FH that well, and he also let us know what we had to do next. It looks kinda (meaning SUPER DUPER) overwhelming in list form, but here we go:

• FH needs to get a letter from his parish priest saying we can marry at the college chapel
• We need to find a pre-cana course we can attend and knock that out of the park
• We both need a copy of our baptism certificates from our churches, dated within the last 6 months
• 4 letters (2 each) from people close to us who can verify we’ve never been married before
• The priest will have to fill out a request for a dispensation as I am not Catholic

It sounds like a lot. It feels like a lot, but Fr. Hockman assured us it’s a lot of paperwork but nothing that will be a problem. He’s never had a wedding denied, so that makes me feel better. He was also really open to how we want to put our ceremony together. I’ve been reading about other brides’ experiences getting married in the Catholic church, and it seems to vary a lot. Some priests are so strict with their rules! I think we’ve found a good fit and we’ll have the flexibility to have a meaningful ceremony for all parties.

So now, it’s up to FH to get things sorted with his church while I research this marriage preparation business. Has anyone else gone through this? If you know of a good course to take in NEPA, I am all ears.