getting married in Melbourne Australia

gingertina

We are an Irish couple who want to tie the knot while on holidays in Melbourne Australia. We want a catholic cermony. does anyone know a small cute church (there will only be 2 witnesses). Do the catholic church do outdoor ceremonies there? Where do I get a list of documents that I should prepare before we leave?

Peregrinus

In general, Catholic marriages have to be celebrated in a parish church, usually - but not always - the parish church of one of the spouses.

The local bishop can give permission for marriages to be celebated in other churches or chapels, but this is usually done in quite a restrictive way. For instance in Melbourne the archbishop allows the Newman Chapel at Melbourne University to be used for marriages, but only where one or both of spouses is a student at, or graduate of, the university.

The bishop can also give permission for marriages to be celebrated in any place at all but, outside cases of emergency, this is very rarely done. So no outdoor weddings. Realistically, you are confined to parish churches in Melbourne (of which there are over 200, so that still leaves you a fair degree of choice).

If you get no better recommendation, Google maps will do you a nice map of "Catholic churches in Melbourne". You can use street view to narrow down ones that look promising, and investigate them further. The city centre churches, naturally, will be the more conveniently located ones, but they will also tend to be quite large, which is not what you want. St. Thomas Aquinas, in South Yarra, might fit the bill.

You could also check out www.weddingvic.com.au, a wedding planning site that has details of quite a number of churches (not all Catholic) that are available for weddings.

As for a list of documents you'll need, once you've chosen your church contact them to see if they have a date for you, and once that's set up they'll tell you what documents and procedures you need to go through.