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Catholic Weddings in Church: Much Hadham |
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Preliminaries |
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| 1. |
Please contact Fr Bob Styles
at The Priest House, Malting Lane, Much Hadham, Herts
SG10 6AW, telephone 01279 842354, and your own Catholic
Parish Priest (in the parish where you are currently living
if it is not Much Hadham) in order to obtain Freedom
to Marry certificates (certificates which states
that there is no problem about you seeking a Catholic
Marriage). These need to be presented to Fr Bob Styles
together with copies of your Baptism Certificates.
Fr Bob cannot undertake to marry you both in the Catholic
Church if neither you nor your partner lives in the Much
Hadham or Sawbridgeworth area, if the marriage does not
conform to the strict rules of the Church, if you are
not at leat a fairly regularly practising Catholic, if
you or your partner has been married before, if you or
your partner are not willing to accept the Catholic understanding
of the wedding vows, or not willing to attend the preparatory
course for marriage required in this diocese.
If you are intending to marry a partner who is not a Catholic
but who has been baptised in a Christian church, your
partner will need to obtain this certificate from his
or her own church of baptism. If your partner has not
been baptised, is a member of another faith, or has no
religious faith you will require a special dispensation
from the Bishop to have a Catholic wedding. If you or
your partner have been married before you will not be
able to have a Catholic wedding unless the marriage was
one which the Catholic Church does not recognise
as truly valid. (You would need to consult Fr Bob or your
own local Catholic Parish Priest about this).
Normally at least six months notice is required for
a wedding. It is your own responsibility to contact your
local Registrar for Marriages etc. in order to obtain
the requisite civil Certificate, without which you cannot
be married. The Registrar will provide you with a
blue form which you must give to Fr Bob well before the
wedding is due to take place.
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| 2. |
You may also like to contact Mrs
Joyce Morris at North Leys, High Street, Much Hadham,
Herts SG10 6DB, telephone 01279 842530, who will offer
a good deal of help and advice about your arrangements
for your wedding, including Registrar requirements.
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| Marriage Preparations |
| 1. |
In this country you are required to
attend a number of preparatory meetings before you get
married in order to make sure that you understand the
marriage vows you will be taking, and the obligations
and responsibilities you are undertaking in your married
life. These have to be completed before your wedding,
and can either be arranged informally as meetings with
Fr Bob, or they can be arranged together with other engaged
couples in more formal meetings arranged by the local
deanery or diocesan area office. In either case you will
need for marriage at least two meetings with Fr Bob, first
to provide him with all the details, certificates etc,
and secondly to arrange the details of the wedding service
itself. A practice session will also be needed
with him in the church on one of the evenings immediately
before your wedding so that you can feel confident enough
for the service itself. If you have arranged with Fr Bob
for your wedding to be celebrated by a different priest,
a practice session should if possible be arranged with
him instead.
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| 2. |
Catholic weddings are either celebrated
with a Nuptial Mass – which is obviously
a rather more splendid sort of wedding, with hymns, Eucharistic
Prayer and Holy Communion, or they are celebrated as simple
services outside Mass with or without hymns and Holy Communion.
If either or both of you prefers not to or feels unable
to receive Holy Communion (eg because one partner belongs
to a different Christian denomination) it is often better
to choose a marriage service outside Mass - though
not being a Catholic does not automatically mean your
partner cannot receive Holy Communion if he or she shares
our belief in its meaning. If a large number of the congregation
will wish to receive Holy Communion, some special arrangements
will need to be made to provide Eucharistic Ministers
as well as enough hosts, and Fr Bob will need to be consulted
about this well in advance of the Service. If you are
having a fairly small wedding with not more than about
20 guests, you may choose to have your wedding entirely
in the chancel – the area beyond the rood
screen round the high altar, which can be both very beautiful
and intimate.
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| 3. |
If you wish to have wedding bells,
flower arrangements and organ, you will have to make the
arrangements for them yourselves and pay for them in advance.
Mrs Lesley Dowling will help you with all the details
about these, as well as help you with possible wedding
Reception locations. She may also offer you advice about
local accommodation for guests who will need to stay overnight
in the area. Fr Bob will help you with your choice of
music, hymns and Readings and everything within the order
of service itself. He can also help you with the things
you will need to have printed on your Wedding Service
leaflets, which you will have to organise yourselves.
Commercial printers usually require plenty of time. |
| The Wedding |
| 1. |
We have no car park, and
so all car parking for a wedding has to be on the public
roads round the area of the church. For your official
cars you will need to reserve spaces outside the
main gate of the church with Police cones. These can be
obtained from the police in Bishop’s Stortford –
and of course will need to be returned to them after the
wedding. You will need to appoint a car parking attendant
or two from among your friends. The greatest possible
care needs to be taken not to inconvenience local villagers
and their access to the road outside their houses. Many
houses have no garages, and these villagers need to be
able to park their own cars outside their homes, without
inconvenience. |
| 2. |
Photographers and video-makers are
welcome provided they do not disturb or distract from
the service itself and do not block the view of anybody
present in the church. Everybody who wishes to video or
photograph any part of the ceremony should consult Fr
Bob or the priest who is officiating well before the service
begins. If a large number of photographs of the bridal
party are required at or before the entrance of the bride,
the bride should arrive at the church sufficiently early
for this to be done without delaying the beginning of
the service by more than ten minutes. (Very young and
very old members of the congregation soon start having
problems if they have miscalculated the length of the
service and there is only one loo which is quite difficult
to reach during the service itself! |
| 3. |
You will need to appoint at least
two reliable ushers from among your friends and
relations, to greet people at the church entrance, give
them Service cards or leaflets etc, and show them to their
seats. They will need to know where the lavatory is, and
how to help people find it during the Service (round the
outside of the Church). It will not be available after
the Service, when the Sacristy has to be locked up.
Ushers need to arrive early as they are responsible for
helping to arrange the Church for the wedding and returning
things to their proper places after the Service, as well
as removing all litter and personal belongings from the
pews and placing the decorated kneelers back in their
proper places along the shelves of the pews. It is very
important that everything should be left ready for the
next normal Service in the Church, as there is nobody
employed to do these things. |
| Fees |
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Use of the Church for your wedding is £100,
of which £50 is returnable if no clearing up or
cleaning is left for the parish to do after the wedding.
Payment is made in advance in the form of cash or two
cheques of £50 each made out to ‘Holy Cross.’
This must be paid to Fr Bob or someone designated by him.
The fee for the Organist
needs to be discovered from the Organist himself or
herself, and the Groom or Best Man should make sure
he pays the Organist before the Service.
Our head Bellringer is Mr
Charlie Jordan with whom you need to get in contact
as early as possible to enable him to contact and warn
his team of bellringers. Payment is also made directly
to him in advance. His telephone number is 01279 842485.
He also organises the opening of the great Church Doors
for the entry of the Bride and for the Wedding Procession
at the end of the Service.
Flower Arrangement is slightly
more complicated in a Shared Church, and before you
contact a Florist you must consult Mrs Lesley Dowling
on 01279 842627 about any special arrangements.
The Stipend offered to the
priest officiating should be handed to him directly.
The normal stipend offered is around £50 –
but there is no obligation whatsoever to make an offering!
Please consult Fr Bob if you
have any further questions or problems!
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