Catholic Wedding Planning

Since Dan and I are getting married at St. Francis Xavier in Wilmette, IL, we will need to abide by all of the protocols instilled by the Church. For my own reference, and to help anyone else in planning their Catholic wedding, I will be chronicling the process.

Dan and I fall into a special (although not particularly rare) group, according to the Catholic Church, because:

• we live together
• Dan is not Catholic

That said, we are also not in the even more special group of people who:

• have been married before
• have one non-Christian (or non-baptized) partner

(these people will have to turn elsewhere for info on the marriage process).

Anyway, since SFX is in Chicagoland, and Dan and I are in West Lafayette, we are completing all of the coursework here, at St. Thomas Aquinas (the Catholic center at Purdue). I spoke to the lady in charge of everything, Eileen Strater, on the phone today. She was really helpful in explaining what we will need to have accomplished prior to our wedding. Here is an overview:

• Meet and fill out a questionnaire. There will be 150+ questions (more for us, b/c of our "special" status)
• Go to a pre-cana retreat (ours will be Saturday, 2/21, pretty much all day)
• Attend several other meetings (she said about 3, around 1h each) to discuss our answers to the questionnaire, and discuss different topics such as conflict resolution, commitment, etc.
  
• Fill out paperwork. This includes obtaining a "freedom to marry" affidavit, which our parents are to fill out, to prove that we haven't been married before, and that there is nothing that is in the way of us getting married before the Church. We also need to obtain baptismal certificates (Dan's can be any sort of proof of baptism; mine has to be an official Catholic document from the place I was baptized). These need to be obtained within the 6 months prior to the wedding (so between April 10, and October 10, 2009).

That seems to be about it; I will blog about the retreat and meetings. I think it is interesting to know how people prepare for marriage.