Reception Location Help & Ceremony requirement help

[armitage]

:confused:

First: I would like to hold my ceremony in a catholic church. However, I have only reached communion - never completing conformation. My fiance has not completed communion or conformation. Does anyone know how or where I can get the information for the Pre-Cana to complete the catholic requirements to get married in a catholic church? I have attempted to email a few churches up at home, but living in Florida and planning a wedding in NJ doesnt make it easy when no one responds back, so was hoping maybe one of the brides, brides to be on here know any information.

Second: I am planning this wedding to be held either in southern NJ (Gloucester County area), Delaware, or Philadelphia. However, I am having great difficulties finding reception sites. I am not picky on locations and open to all suggestions for locations. With being in graduate school, and planning a wedding 1300 miles away, with no help from home I would greatly appreciate any and all location help especially if the cost is on the low end. Most places I have researched are $65 - 125 per person this is outragously high.

Please please help

Thanks :eek:

[meligra27]

:confused:

First: I would like to hold my ceremony in a catholic church. However, I have only reached communion - never completing conformation. My fiance has not completed communion or conformation. Does anyone know how or where I can get the information for the Pre-Cana to complete the catholic requirements to get married in a catholic church? I have attempted to email a few churches up at home, but living in Florida and planning a wedding in NJ doesnt make it easy when no one responds back, so was hoping maybe one of the brides, brides to be on here know any information.

Second: I am planning this wedding to be held either in southern NJ (Gloucester County area), Delaware, or Philadelphia. However, I am having great difficulties finding reception sites. I am not picky on locations and open to all suggestions for locations. With being in graduate school, and planning a wedding 1300 miles away, with no help from home I would greatly appreciate any and all location help especially if the cost is on the low end. Most places I have researched are $65 - 125 per person this is outragously high.

Please please help

Thanks :eek:


Armitage,
I don't know much about NJ I am in MA but in MA if you want to get married in a catholic church and you and your FH havent completed your communion or confirmation there are some churches that you can pay to have your wedding. My aunt did that and she paid (well they call it donating) 400 dollars. That may be an option. Did you try here at wedding solutions for a reception site? This is where I found mines and the price wasnt too bad. Good luck.

[Yvette]

:confused:

First: I would like to hold my ceremony in a catholic church. However, I have only reached communion - never completing conformation. My fiance has not completed communion or conformation. Does anyone know how or where I can get the information for the Pre-Cana to complete the catholic requirements to get married in a catholic church? I have attempted to email a few churches up at home, but living in Florida and planning a wedding in NJ doesnt make it easy when no one responds back, so was hoping maybe one of the brides, brides to be on here know any information.

Second: I am planning this wedding to be held either in southern NJ (Gloucester County area), Delaware, or Philadelphia. However, I am having great difficulties finding reception sites. I am not picky on locations and open to all suggestions for locations. With being in graduate school, and planning a wedding 1300 miles away, with no help from home I would greatly appreciate any and all location help especially if the cost is on the low end. Most places I have researched are $65 - 125 per person this is outragously high.

Please please help

Thanks :eek:

Did you try calling the church directly. They might be able to direct you personally as to what to do next. I am catholic too but my FH is not so we decided no to do it in church. Unless you get a non catholic church. You might get away with it by just having to take a couple of clases. I would call instead of trying to email them... Good Luck... as far as your your location, you can try getting a hold of the yellow pages in that area. it must be a challenge trying to do this from 1300 miles away... i did the same as meligra27 going to the reception sites under the wedding solutions, by entering the zip code.

[armitage]

Did you try calling the church directly. They might be able to direct you personally as to what to do next. I am catholic too but my FH is not so we decided no to do it in church. Unless you get a non catholic church. You might get away with it by just having to take a couple of clases. I would call instead of trying to email them... Good Luck... as far as your your location, you can try getting a hold of the yellow pages in that area. it must be a challenge trying to do this from 1300 miles away... i did the same as meligra27 going to the reception sites under the wedding solutions, by entering the zip code.

Thanks to both of you. Unfortunately this site like many others when you enter NJ, you only get reception locations for the central - north NJ area, unfortunately for my guests would not appreciate driving 2 -3 hours from South Jersey. I have even gone to websites specifically for NJ, and they are so misrepresenting the state by also not having any sites in the southern NJ area. Unfortunately with my school/work schedule I am unable to call the churches b/c by time I get in its way too early like now 6am or way too late like 12 midnight.

Anyone with information to help on either end, I am still looking so would greatly appreciate any and all info as always :)

[reecey]

:confused:

First: I would like to hold my ceremony in a catholic church. However, I have only reached communion - never completing conformation. My fiance has not completed communion or conformation. Does anyone know how or where I can get the information for the Pre-Cana to complete the catholic requirements to get married in a catholic church? I have attempted to email a few churches up at home, but living in Florida and planning a wedding in NJ doesnt make it easy when no one responds back, so was hoping maybe one of the brides, brides to be on here know any information.

Second: I am planning this wedding to be held either in southern NJ (Gloucester County area), Delaware, or Philadelphia. However, I am having great difficulties finding reception sites. I am not picky on locations and open to all suggestions for locations. With being in graduate school, and planning a wedding 1300 miles away, with no help from home I would greatly appreciate any and all location help especially if the cost is on the low end. Most places I have researched are $65 - 125 per person this is outragously high.

Please please help

Thanks :eek:


You can do this in any catholic church - you don't have to do it in the one you want to get married in - check with the catholic churches in the area you're currently in

Check with american legion halls, VFW, knights of columbus, elks and union halls - they're usually pretty large and usually plain inside - which gives you artistic license for decorating. They're usually priced reasonably as well - and if you know someone involved in the organization, they usually get a hefty discount if they rent the hall. We have a conservation/archery club where I'm having mine at - it holds 300 people and its 600.00 - my brother is a member so I'm getting it for 35 bucks :)

[Kelly1Mickey]

Did you try checking out hotels in those areas? Maybe you could find one that has a banquet room.

[Kelly1Mickey]

Check out www.maxnetsearch.com
They have wedding info for NJ and Delaware...hope it helps

[meligra27]

Thanks to both of you. Unfortunately this site like many others when you enter NJ, you only get reception locations for the central - north NJ area, unfortunately for my guests would not appreciate driving 2 -3 hours from South Jersey. I have even gone to websites specifically for NJ, and they are so misrepresenting the state by also not having any sites in the southern NJ area. Unfortunately with my school/work schedule I am unable to call the churches b/c by time I get in its way too early like now 6am or way too late like 12 midnight.

Anyone with information to help on either end, I am still looking so would greatly appreciate any and all info as always :)


hey armitage
did you try contacting the chamber of commerce for that area in NJ. They should have a website too. That may help. Good luck

[cl_peterson]

Here is what I know from my experience and to give you an idea of the possible things you will have to deal with, but I'm not an expert or anything so definitely check with a priest. First, you will probably have to "register" as a member within a parish. That essentially just involves filling out a name and address form. It really doesn't matter where you are registered. I registered at my mom's parish, I am getting married in a different parish, and my officiant is a priest from yet a third parish. Here is how this ***e about. I happened to register at my mom's parish, cause that is the first place I could think of, and sometimes I do go to mass with her there. Then I picked the location of where I actually wanted to get married, the second church. The second church required that if I am not registered there (which I'm not) then I can't use one of their priests, I have to use my own. So I talked to the priest who does weddings at my mom's church, my registered church, and he said he only does weddings at his own parish, and so if I want to get married at the second church I have to find another priest. So, I found a priest at a third church who was willing to perform the ceremony at the second church. The final step was getting the priest at my registered church and the priest performing the ceremony to agree on who would handle all the marriage prep and paperwork. Here is a statement I found somewhere: "Catholics who have not yet received the sacrament of confirmation are to receive it before being admitted to marriage, if this can be done without grave inconvenience." I'm pretty sure grave inconvenience means you are deathly ill, so you'll probably have to go through confirmation. Also, if your fiance is not baptized Catholic, then you will have to sign something that you will remain faithful to the Catholic church, and you will raise your children Catholic. So given your situation, I think you will need to find a local priest to handle your prep and paperwork (since you probably don't have time to go back and forth to NJ) and then another priest to perform the ceremony (unless you want to fly your priest out there and he agrees to it). Hope this helps, and doesn't scare you too much. So far I have survived even though it was a huge pain at first.

:confused:

First: I would like to hold my ceremony in a catholic church. However, I have only reached communion - never completing conformation. My fiance has not completed communion or conformation. Does anyone know how or where I can get the information for the Pre-Cana to complete the catholic requirements to get married in a catholic church? I have attempted to email a few churches up at home, but living in Florida and planning a wedding in NJ doesnt make it easy when no one responds back, so was hoping maybe one of the brides, brides to be on here know any information.

Second: I am planning this wedding to be held either in southern NJ (Gloucester County area), Delaware, or Philadelphia. However, I am having great difficulties finding reception sites. I am not picky on locations and open to all suggestions for locations. With being in graduate school, and planning a wedding 1300 miles away, with no help from home I would greatly appreciate any and all location help especially if the cost is on the low end. Most places I have researched are $65 - 125 per person this is outragously high.

Please please help

Thanks :eek:

[cl_peterson]

As for reception locations, I found that most hotel banquet rooms/meals were way out of my budget range. Affordable halls in my area were fairly unattractive and again cost of rentals and catering and their added stress made this not an option for me. I was able to find a smaller family-owned restaurant that had a very reasonable banquet menu. It happens to have a fairly private main dining room with an adjacent outdoor patio, so we get to have a coctail hour out on the patio, dining inside, then dancing and the band back on the patio. They will serve a four course sit down meal for $35/pp (that includes tax and tip), I don't have to worry about any rentals or decor other than the centerpieces, I don't have to worry about hiring licensed servers, and because they are not a chain, I am getting very personal service.

:confused:

First: I would like to hold my ceremony in a catholic church. However, I have only reached communion - never completing conformation. My fiance has not completed communion or conformation. Does anyone know how or where I can get the information for the Pre-Cana to complete the catholic requirements to get married in a catholic church? I have attempted to email a few churches up at home, but living in Florida and planning a wedding in NJ doesnt make it easy when no one responds back, so was hoping maybe one of the brides, brides to be on here know any information.

Second: I am planning this wedding to be held either in southern NJ (Gloucester County area), Delaware, or Philadelphia. However, I am having great difficulties finding reception sites. I am not picky on locations and open to all suggestions for locations. With being in graduate school, and planning a wedding 1300 miles away, with no help from home I would greatly appreciate any and all location help especially if the cost is on the low end. Most places I have researched are $65 - 125 per person this is outragously high.

Please please help

Thanks :eek:

[meligra27]

Thanks to both of you. Unfortunately this site like many others when you enter NJ, you only get reception locations for the central - north NJ area, unfortunately for my guests would not appreciate driving 2 -3 hours from South Jersey. I have even gone to websites specifically for NJ, and they are so misrepresenting the state by also not having any sites in the southern NJ area. Unfortunately with my school/work schedule I am unable to call the churches b/c by time I get in its way too early like now 6am or way too late like 12 midnight.

Anyone with information to help on either end, I am still looking so would greatly appreciate any and all info as always :)


Hey Armitage,
Heres a site for the chamber of commerce in the southern part of NJ maybe it will help you. Its worth a try. Good luck.
http://www.chambersnj.com/

[armitage]

Thank you so much, that is extremely helpful. Everyone here has been so wonderful, if anyone needs help I will do best I can but obviously I am as novice as they come.



As for reception locations, I found that most hotel banquet rooms/meals were way out of my budget range. Affordable halls in my area were fairly unattractive and again cost of rentals and catering and their added stress made this not an option for me. I was able to find a smaller family-owned restaurant that had a very reasonable banquet menu. It happens to have a fairly private main dining room with an adjacent outdoor patio, so we get to have a coctail hour out on the patio, dining inside, then dancing and the band back on the patio. They will serve a four course sit down meal for $35/pp (that includes tax and tip), I don't have to worry about any rentals or decor other than the centerpieces, I don't have to worry about hiring licensed servers, and because they are not a chain, I am getting very personal service.

[Kelly1Mickey]

Armitage...We were all novices at one point! But once you really get deep into the wedding planning, you start learning so much and this forum covers every topic you'll ever need! If you need anymore help, just let us know!