Wedding Guidelines

Catholic Church Weddings at the cluster parishes of St Edward, St George, St Paul and St Peter

GUIDELINES

This is an important day in your life. However, it is important to remember that you have chosen a Catholic wedding in one of our cluster parishes. This liturgy belongs to the entire Church. In asking the Church’s blessing of your bond, you are agreeing to a wedding in line with the norms of the Catholic Church. We can educate, explain, and adapt these norms for you. Please remember – while it is your wedding day, it is important to keep in mind that it is the Church’s wedding.

There is no professional staff who works with weddings other than the priest. All other staff involved (Wedding Coordinator, Musicians, Mass Servers, etc.) are volunteers. While we want to honor all your requests, it is important to remember that we train volunteers to work with weddings in a manner consistent with liturgical and pastoral guidelines of the Roman Catholic Church. Special requests create problems, and throw off our volunteers.

A Wedding Coordinator is available to answer any questions regarding the Church, rehearsal schedule, and wedding day schedule. Please contact the specific wedding coordinator assigned to your wedding by Fr. Felino. Please call the coordinator at their home number, and leave a message if they are not there. They will return your call as soon as they retrieve your message. Please leave the best phone number where you can be reached. This is not a primary job for most coordinators, and evening is usually the best time to reach them.

Parish Coordinators are as follows:

•       St George:  Mary Antoinette    P: 206-779-5174 Email: masmith@seattleu.edu
  
•       St Edward:  Kathy Dell        P: 206-760-7606 Email: dellimagine@email.msn.com
  
•       St Paul:    Mary Antoinette    P: 206-779-5174 Email: masmith@seattleu.edu

Plan to meet with a parish musician at least two months before your wedding. While we sometimes can accommodate soloists and other musicians, we ask that you rely on our parish musicians. They are professionally trained volunteers who know how to work the church’s microphones, and how to carry music in the individual church spaces.

Each parish has either the Worship hymnal, the more contemporary Gather hymnal, the “Lead Me, Guide Me” hymnal and OCP missals available. The parish musicians have extensive experience with music and the celebration of weddings, and can help you select appropriate music. If you have a song you would like played at your wedding, bring the sheet music to the music planning meeting and the parish musician will let you know if it is appropriate.

POPULAR MUSIC IS NOT ALLOWED. Neither is religious tunes unrelated to worship. These types of music are best used at your reception.

Pre-recorded music on compact discs or cassette tapes IS NOT ALLOWED in the Church ceremony. Someone being accompanied by a karaoke machine or boom box is also NOT ALLOWED. These types of music presentation are best used at the reception.

The pastor of all four parishes in line with the Diocesan norms and the universal Church has established guidelines for wedding music. These guidelines are firmly adhered to by the parish musicians. Insisting on music that is not appropriate only creates an uncomfortable situation for the parish musician. Please be open to suggestions made by these individuals.

We cannot honor any request for an organist other than the Church organist, as the organ is a very sensitive instrument that requires a highly trained organist. Please honor our policy on this important matter.

Nina deJesus    P: 206-859-8902      Organ, Piano and Vocalist

                   E: ninadejesus@icloud.com

      Diane Carrasca   P: 206-412-0826      Piano and Vocalist

                   E: dianec@electrocom.us

      Chris Maddock   P: 206-769-0502      Organ only

                   E: maddockc@icloud.com

      Manuel Varona   P: 425-212-0032      Spanish music

                    E:  manuelvarona@aol.com

If you are spending money to beautify the Church for your wedding, might we suggest flowers? Catholic Churches typically have many candles placed to underscore the importance of the altar and pulpit. If you insist on using candelabras, the candles must be dripless.

Unity candles are not encouraged. While unity candles are sometimes seen in Catholic weddings, it was developed for ceremonies that lacked “ritual”. However, the Catholic wedding ceremony is full of ritual. A beautiful gesture more consistent with Catholic worship would be to light a candle in front of the statue of Mary or leave a small bouquet of flowers on her altar.

Parish flower arrangements can be removed from the main altar area by the Wedding Coordinator, and your own put in their place. Please discuss this arrangement with her if the flower arrangements do not coordinate with your color scheme.

Decorating the pews with flowers is also acceptable. However, these arrangements should not be taped directly to the wood. Your florist and craft stores such as Michael’s carry “pew clips”, a plastic clip that you attach the arrangement to and then just put over the pew end. You can also use ribbon or raffia to tie the arrangement around the pew end. Please check with your florist to make sure they can honor this request.

Sometimes couples choose favorite colors, but those colors look different in the Church building. Look carefully at the interior of the church, its color scheme and lighting, and then decide what types of colors will look good in the space.

Ask the Wedding Coordinator if there will be any seasonal or feast-day decorations up when your wedding occurs. These decorations cannot be removed for your wedding.

Dresses are expected to be decent and appropriate for a religious ceremony.

The rehearsal starts promptly at the agreed upon hour, and usually lasts one hour. The bride, groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen, maid of honor, best man, ring bearer, flower girl, sponsors, readers, and photographers/videographers (if possible) all need to be there on time. It is important to be attentive during the rehearsal, as the ceremony will be thoroughly gone through only once. Time can be allowed for readers of sacred scripture to practice using the Church sound system.

Like your wedding day, the rehearsal day is also an important day. Due to traffic constraints and last-minute errands, it is suggested that you take a half-day off the day of the rehearsal so you can make it to the church relaxed and ready to begin on time.

If there is no funeral scheduled, the Church can be available to you four hours before your wedding is scheduled to begin. This allows plenty of time for florists to arrive to decorate the Church, and for everyone to arrive in time for pictures to be taken.

AISLE RUNNERS ARE NOT ALLOWED. Believe it or not, people have tripped on runners and actually sued Churches. This is an insurance liability issue.

No rice, birdseed, grain, or flower petals can be spread on the aisle, or thrown outside the Church at the Bride and Groom. Again, this is a liability issue. Soap bubbles used outside are allowed.

Alcohol is not allowed on any Church premise. Rehearsals and weddings will be terminated immediately if alcohol is found.

Food and drinks such as water and soda can be consumed by the wedding participants before the ceremony begins. However, all food and drink should remain in the vestibule or areas where people are getting ready. No food and drink is allowed in the church area or on the altar. Any containers and wrappers should be cleaned up from the vestibule before guests begin arriving. No chewing of gum during the wedding ceremony.

Picture taking should be done before the wedding starts. Picture taking at the Church (inside and outside) should be completed at least one-half hour prior to the start of the ceremony. This allows time for all participants to make final adjustments to clothing and hair, use the restrooms, and gather in the vestibule, and for the ushers to seat the guests without running into photographer’s equipment. The Wedding Coordinator will be reminding the photographer to finish picture taking a half-hour before the ceremony begins.

Flash photography during the wedding is not allowed. The ceremony itself is an act of worship to God. As such, flash photography and moving around of photographers and videographers are a distraction. Please respect the sacredness of Church worship.  Video cameras should be located in one spot in the Church if used. Check with the Wedding Coordinator for the best spots. Photographers and videographers ARE NOT allowed on the altar during the wedding ceremony. The Wedding Coordinator or Priest will enforce this during the ceremony if necessary.

All pagers, cell phones, and any other communication devices should be turned off before the wedding begins.

Children need to be with adults at all times. Ring bearers and flower girls should sit in the congregation with a relative or guardian. Please accompany children when the need to use the restroom arises.

Mass servers and Eucharistic ministers should be from the Parish. If you have family members coming to the wedding that are trained in these liturgical roles at the parish, they are more than welcome to serve but they must attend the rehearsal. If not, mass servers and Eucharistic ministers will be assigned from the parish by the parish administrative assistant. A stipend for the mass servers (ten dollars each) should be paid when the donation for your wedding is paid.

We desire to create a welcoming environment for a variety of celebrations. On any given weekend, we celebrate multiple liturgies including weddings, funerals, baptisms, and the sacrament of reconciliation as well as our weekend celebrations of the Mass.

To make sure our Church is clean and welcoming, please pick up any trash, flowers, clothes and bags in the bathrooms, etc. If guests bring gifts to the Church, please assign someone to take them to the Reception. If arrangements need to be made for the florist to pick up their candelabras or decorations, please discuss this with the Wedding Coordinator. Anything left at the Church will be discarded.