Still trying to get used to being engaged.

Hi Everyone,
I joined the boards last week, right after i got engaged, not too excited am i ? :)
Anyway its been one week and already i have tons of questions.
Most importantly.. Does anyone know if a catholic priest can marry you outside of a church like at the hall? Its a long story but we cant agree on a church i want my church where I grew up in queens but it is very close to the city and our reception will most likly be in Nassau so he wants a church closer whereI feel i have no connection so therefore my next choice would be to forget the whole church and do it at the place? Any input would be great!!

Re: Still trying to get used to being engaged.

I'm not sure about the priest being able to do the ceremony at the hall, you should call your parish and find out. Also I think that if you really want to get married in your church in Queens you should, just make some extra time in between church and reception so you can take pictures in between and not feel rushed.

Re: Still trying to get used to being engaged.

Well I had the same problem and we asked my FH priest if they would marry us at the catering hall. The priest said that they couldn't marry anybody outside of the church because it was not allowed and not right (whatever). At the end we ended up having a retired priest marry us at our catering hall.

Re: Still trying to get used to being engaged.

We had a similar problem - we were adamant about getting married on the beach in Montauk but we still wanted a priest to marry us (i'm catholic, my FH jewish). I was told that if we were both catholic than we would have to get married in the church, in order for the marriage to be recognized by the catholic religion. But since my FH isn't catholic, we are able to do it outside as long as a rabbi is present. Well to make a long story short, we didn't want to pay $1000 for a rabbi so my priest got us a dispensation from the catholic diocese and he is now able to marry us outside. Now although technically those are the rules of the church there are plenty of 'priests' who don't follow the rules of catholocism as long as they are getting paid! Sorry this is long but i just went through this whole thing and I understand how hard it is. Forum mail me when any more questions! Good luck!

Re: Still trying to get used to being engaged.

Thanks everyone for your advice.
Well I happen to know a priest and we are going to ask him if he will do it for us if not it will have to be in his church which is in floral park. i grew up in woodside and thats wheer my old parish is but the priest i know belongs to a church in floral park which is convinient b/c i live in Bayside and our reception will either be near floral park or somewhere not to far in another part of nassau.

So where is everyone hgetting married. thats my next step trying to figure out where want it. I know I want one wedding at a time and that we only want to gaurentee 125 this may be a problem. any suggestions on places?

Sorry this is so long :)

Re: Still trying to get used to being engaged.

we too, have a retired priest marrying us at Flowerfield!

Re: Still trying to get used to being engaged.

FI and I really didnt have a problem with the church. We are both catholic. He did want his church and I wanted my church, but we compramised. We are having it at my church, and we are going to ask a priest that did all his sacraments to do our ceremony. We found out where this priest is located and we are going to get in contact with him.

We're having our reception at Manor East. They do more then 1 affair at a time, but you have your own floor, your own kitchen, staff, bathroom, etc...It feels like you are the only reception at a time. There is even your own entrance. You'll never bump into anyone from another party. We booked our hall in October and its been absolutly wonderful from the moment we walked in. If I have to call to ask a question, our guy is so nice and funny and really sweet. He works with our needs and its really great to get things in the mail from our hall about events that is coming up, reminders of when our bill is due, and a letter saying whatever we need we can just call them up and they'll be there for us.

We looked at a few halls and Manor East was actually the first hall we looked at. What sold us was how honest our guy is, how sincere he is, the menu (which is amazing), and the hall offers so much. We are getting an ice sculpture, a mini vianesse table and so many other great things. All of this is included in our price. We went to Manor East and right after we walked out we said this is the place. We went to a few others to just see what else was out there and it was hands down Manor East. We are so happy and cant wait for our recpetion.

04Bride if you want to know more forum mail me I'll be happy to give you all the details.