If a Catholic marries in a Civil Ceremony, do both of us have to be there to get the wedding blessed after?
is it so hard to get blessed – unless the catholic church was forcing you to change religion is it so wrong to join your new husband and get a blessing – I am not highly religious and am Church of Scotland, but I see nothing wrong in it – if it makes your husband happy and does you no harm then take part – I doubt it could be done by him alone as it is the marriage between two people that is being blessed. On the other hand have you spoke to your partner – is he so religious he wants the blessing or does he just think it should be done because it is the normal thing to do – you have been together 12 years and now want to commit for the rest of your lives – is this one thing going to destroy it.
If you have your marriage blessed then yes you both have to be there, my fiance is catholic and I am church of england, we are getting married in a methodist church which we have been going to for about a year since its a more “modern thinking”religion. We are going to get our marriage blessed in Italy next year because my fiance is Italian and most of his family are out there and yes I will be there for him, he is marrying outside of his faith and although he is not a strict practising catholic I think it would be great for him. I would not let religion come into your relationship, if you love each other then do it for each other, we plan on going to different churches to experience different ways of worshipping so I see no point in being rigid about the whole thing. Go for his sake if this is what he wants to do and good luck.
I was exactly the same when we married years ago — I was Lutheran, he was Catholic — we were married in the Lutheran church. About 10 yrs later we had our marriage blessed in the Catholic church – at that time I had joined the Cath. church. For the blessing you need to both be there – same as with the actual wedding ceremony. It is something you both need to decide on and you both have to be actively involved with.
