church cermemony

yes, you can. i am assuming you're Catholic? if so, that's fine. you still need to meet with a priest and he will direct you further on that. you can still have a Mass or ceremony so that it is a valid Church marriage as well as a civil marriage. you won't need a marraige license now though since you're alreday married by the state.

your case may be what the Church calls a convalidation. essentially, paperwork that is filled out because you were already civilly married, now the Church is just validating that. some people do this soon after their civil ceremony (i,e, within the year) and others do it years down the line (perhaps after someone has converted to Catholicism or whathave)

to me, if you're not already civilly married, the easiest is to do it all in Church from the get go, if you can. that way it's recognized by the Church and the State in the one go.

Thanks so much for both of your help. So sorry it took me a few days to re-read what you both said.

Basically my 'fiance' is in a Captain in the Army and is being deployed come this October for 12 months - the reason we had a civil ceremony. I actually live in Hawaii currently but am from Long Island where we will be having our wedding!

Thanks again