Catholic Brides

JoanneAndJustin Posted: May 21, 2008 07:38 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

I have a question. Is it too early to book my church? It's more important that I get the church than the RH. We set a date for Sunday, 5/16/2010. I'd like to book the church and then look at RH... should I give the church a call, or wait?

Autumnbride03 Posted: May 21, 2008 08:24 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

we booked the RH first. We wanted the wedding in a certain area and there arn't many RH's on the east end. We also can 'shop around' for churches (I'm presbyterian, FH is catholic, we are trying for a catholic church but he grew up upstate so we arn't active anywhere)

slsd22505 Posted: May 21, 2008 08:49 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

We booked RH first..... and then the church. My RH gets booked very quickly, so that is why I did that first.

MIssBridalBliss Posted: May 21, 2008 08:53 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

I believe we held our date the RH and checked with the Church. We knew of some of the days and times available at the RH and then decided that way.

ttw910 Posted: May 21, 2008 09:11 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

I called my church right away and found out what dates they had available during the months that I was interested. Suprisingly they were very booked up, and I was looking about 12-15 months ahead of time. I took that list with me when looking at RH's and compared what dates were available at both the church and RH.

Firkx3 Posted: May 21, 2008 09:36 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

If you indeed book RH first, do not tell the church that! Just continue telling them the day is special to you guys! They don't feel that RH is nearly as important as church.

We had reception hall hold our date for a week and then confirmed it after we found out our church was also available the same day.

alli3131 Posted: May 21, 2008 09:39 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

We booked the RH first because the particular RH was more important to us than a certain church. WHen we decided on a church we didn't tell them we already booked a RH. Because we weren't parishoners at the church we couldn't book our date more than a year in advance.

oldfriendoflive Posted: May 21, 2008 09:40 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

Posted by cmjd

We actually did the RH first and luckily the church had that day available!

Same here. We took a chance booking the RH first but the RH book up faster then the church.

PegaLega Posted: May 21, 2008 11:36 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

Posted by windyBride33

I have a question. Is it too early to book my church? It's more important that I get the church than the RH. We set a date for Sunday, 5/16/2010. I'd like to book the church and then look at RH... should I give the church a call, or wait?

It might be, they may not have a book for 2010 yet-you can call and find out and if they dont have a book yet ask them when they think they will get one-it probably wont be until mid 2009 or th end of 2009....if that is the case ask them if they can take your name or if there is anyway to reserve the date, etc.

Christine N Ralph Posted: May 22, 2008 07:56 AM

Re: Catholic Brides

I booked the RH first...our wedding was 2 years away at that point and the Church said they would have the date for us. If you are getting married in '09 or are getting married in the spring, summer, or even early fall I would look into the church 1st

JT11596 Posted: May 22, 2008 09:48 AM

Re: Catholic Brides

If it's a time of year where there may be events going on in the church, like confirmations or holiday masses, you should definately book the church first; we called the church first and was glad we did because we wanted October and because of confirmations, they only had about 3 available times in the whole month!
Good luck!!

Joette_Terese Posted: May 22, 2008 10:03 AM

Re: Catholic Brides

We met with and booked the church first.

snowcutie82 Posted: May 22, 2008 12:19 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

Posted by agraydc

i looked into both at the same time

this is what we did. we figured out what dates we liked....made sure they were available at our rh and made sure the church was open that day too.

08JulyBride Posted: May 22, 2008 12:41 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

If you book the hall first, DON'T tell the church they weren't first... it is frowned upon because the ceremony is what's most important, not the 'party' as I've heard..

Luvbsb4eva Posted: May 22, 2008 02:44 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

We actually booked our RH first, and then went to the church... and since we were told that it was frowned upon, we pretended that we hadn't booked up the RH yet. But the priest was very nice and acted like we should've booked up the RH already... he said to us... oh did you book up your RH yet, and we were like no, we started looking at ones and we know who has the date available... and he's like oh you should've done that! You have to go book that up before someone else does! I guess it depends on the priest!

oktom22 Posted: May 22, 2008 03:15 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

We did the Church first b/c it was important to me as I've been at that Church most of my life. Also I wanted a specific priest to officiate the wedding. So we booked w/ them first and then went hunting for RH. It made the choice of RH's easier b/c we were not flexible w/ the date or time.

Good luck!

MakingofaMulligan Posted: May 22, 2008 03:26 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

I booked the church first

Cpt2007 Posted: May 22, 2008 03:30 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

Check with your church FIRST before you book or sign a contract with your hall.

Pinkiegirll07 Posted: May 22, 2008 04:04 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

Posted by agraydc

i looked into both at the same time

We did this too. However, when I looked into the date with the church I never technically told them I was pretty much booked at the hall! They don't like to know that you booked the hall first because you should always book the church first!

oldladybride Posted: May 22, 2008 08:43 PM

Re: Catholic Brides

we checked 3 dates at the church to see if they were availble, then used these to check RHs.
the church didn't want to be specific about what was availble because they wanted to interview and formally put us on the calendar - - no penciling for them. but all but 1 date was booked for sunday in Sept so it was easier to find out.

anyway, we decided on RH and knew date had been avail, so met with priest, got date saved and then 2 days later went to RH. date was still good.
but we had backup plan if needed to push RH later 1 week, would then change with the church - - which at my church was ok. they didn't mind if you changed the date - - go figure.