wedding blessing in ireland

dani7x

Is it possible to have a church blessing in Ireland, as in have the whole usual normal wedding, but instead of being legally married its a marriage blessing instead?

Milly33

I think so. My sister had one in our local church.. They got married abroad as they were living abroad and then came back and it was the same things as the wedding just faster which was great haha. We all dressed up and she had us as bridesmaids and family and friends who could not make it..It was actually great as they had it later in the day aswell and then back to the house for a party. It was the monks who done the blessing but I am sure any of the priests would

lazygal

It depends on the priest. Some won't bless a non church marriage.

Stheno

lazygal wrote: »

It depends on the priest. Some won't bless a non church marriage.

Agreed, it's up to the individual priest, it is possible but not all will do it

Peregrinus

It is possible in the Catholic church. It's called a "convalidation". Whether a priest will do it or not usually depends on the couple's reason for wanting the convalidation.

Milage may vary in other churches.

Gordon Minard

OP - when you say "instead of being legally married" are you saying that Marriage in the Church is not available to you, for one reason or another . . .

Sorry, I don't mean to pry but I think that that is an important factor . . .

Peregrinus

In the Catholic church convalidation/church blessing is given where a couple is already married. If they are unmarried, are legally free to marry but don't wish to marry then, no, they won't be able to get a wedding-like ceremony in the Catholic church.

Gatica

As what above 2 posted said, I also thought the OP wanted a wedding without being legally married. As far as I know, the church will not do such ceremonies. (Unless there's some kind of super special reason for it, that they'll oblige...and I still doubt it would be possible).

Peregrinus

No. If you're a committed conjugal (opposite-sex) couple who are not already married they think you should be marrying, basically. And if you are not that committed, then you shouldn't be going through a ceremony to designed to suggest that you are.

You'll occasionally get circumstances where a couple are not legally free to marry, but there is no religious impediment, and the Catholic church will facilitate that. This used to happen in Ireland when there was no divorce; after getting a Catholic church annulment someone who was, as a matter of civil law, still married could remarry in the Catholic church, and of course they were not legally married to their new partner. But as far as the Catholic church was concerned that wasn't a "wedding blessing"; it was a marriage. In any event, that problem no longer arises, since the introduction of civil divorce.