Rushed Church Wedding???

elladee21

My fiance an i have been together for 4yrs, engaged for 1yr. Last week we found out that his dad hasn got long left to live, few months at most. We both want his dad to be at the wedding so gonna try and organise it for a months time, so were gonna try and get the wedding licence rushed thru, but apparently need to give priest three months notice bout the weddin and was jus wondering if the church will waive this notice under the circumstances, we have a meetin with him on tues but id like to have an idea of what he'll say so we can start planning things!
any help is much appreciated. thank you in advance

also if anyone has tips about a rushed wedding on a thight enough budget

Victor

You may need to apply for special permission from the church and you will need court permission on the civil side, but yes, it can be done.

elladee21

thanks, we knew about applying to the courts but jus not sure bout the religious side. as i said well be talking to the priest tomoro so can discuss the permission and that then, jus wanted to know if they make exceptions. so thanks again for that

CathyMoran

They also did it in my case (I was very ill for the wedding) though my husband did not tell me until a long time later. You can have a nice church wedding planned in a short space of time - my part look maybe a few days but my husband did most of it. I know that when someone is very ill a wedding can mean a huge deal to them, I really wish you all the best, hugs.

Edit: I did not have many people at mine (was not sure how well I would be and did not want my husband left with a huge bill), I had a non-wedding/wedding dress though places like Monsoon are great. Did not have a honeymoon for a few weeks (and even then it was to a place that I could easily get back from (Paris)) though you may want to check your travel insurance...did not have bridesmaids etc.

smelltheglove

Shouldnt be too much hassle at all, best of luck with it, let us know how you get on.

fozzle

Elladee it can be done, you just have to be ready to take time off work to get the the registrar whenever they have a free spot.

If you know the priest it'll probably be easier to get the church at short notice as they'll understand your situation. Of course that depends on how restricted your dates are too. Ask him about the pre-marriage course too - some parishes are very strict about it, some don't mind at all. We couldn't get onto a course before our wedding but our priest didn't mind, some can be a bit more demanding.

As for cutting costs - if most of your guests have internet access send email invitations - they're free and they can print them off themselves if they really want a physical reminder. A friend of ours is doing this and I think it's a great idea. You can still print something up yourself if you need "real" invitations. And don't be afraid to make your own - we made ours - getting them printed up professionally can be insanely expensive.

That's relatively small money, a bigger thing is a meal. A number of my cousins and myself have been married over the last two years and one thing we've all done is had only immediate family and aunts and uncles to the wedding dinner. For one wedding the various cousins arranged a meal in a restaurant for ourselves while the wedding meal was on, then we joined everyone else at the hotel for drinks and a dance later. DON'T pay for people's drinks aside from maybe wine with the meal.
For ours we just had aunts and uncles and immediate family at the wedding/meal and then 3 weeks later had a dance with sausage-onna-stick type food for our friends and cousins.

Anyone invited knows no-one's exactly flush with cash at the moment, and in your situation where you've had no time to save it's especially understandable.

Hmmm, what else? Call in favours - if you have a friend who can sing or play an instrument, get them to perform as a wedding gift. Just because you don't have much time doesn't mean you can't have a day every bit as nice as someone who's been planning for years. (I have to confess, planning for 2 or 3 years like I've seen people do would make me crazy)

Know someone who has a café or is a dab hand with baking? We got a wedding cake for 40euros by asking a friend of my mum's who has a café. Likewise, if there's a local florist - we only paid for the flowers for the bouquets, no charge for the actual work. Or get a friend or family member to do them - my mum did them for my uncle's wedding two years ago and for mine last year - get some oasis, wet it, cover it in ivy, letting it trail down the sides, push a candle in the middle and pop a few carnations through the ivy - it looks really simple and pretty and it'll last ages - you can do the ivy a couple of days before and just add flowers on the day - the pieces for my uncle's wedding were used for two subsequent weddings in the same church with just the flowers being changed.

Don't be afraid to let people know that a gift of even 20euro is preferable to 142 toasters and 3,000 photoframes - it all adds up and could easily end up paying for a large part of the wedding.

Hope some of this helps, good luck, and best wishes to his dad. At the end of the day, other than the paperwork, nothing else matters as long as you can share the day with people you can care about, weather you have a big fancy hotel meal, or a bbq in your backgarden.

CathyMoran

Another less obvious thing is to try and pick happy readings - a lot of them can be very depressing - we picked a happy passage from Corinthians (can look it up if you want, it is popular at weddings and is also breathtakingly beautiful). Best wishes with your wedding.