Today is a special day, my friends. Today, my husband and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage! For anyone who is interested, you can see a few of my wedding pictures here.
My wedding day, August 7, 2004. 10 years and counting!
We were only 19 when we got married. We were just about to begin our Sophomore year of college. Our decision seemed rash to the world, but we didn’t care, because we were head over heals in love with each other. In celebration of our anniversary today, I’m sharing Catholic wedding ideas with you today. I asked for ideas on my facebook page, and you all delivered, so here goes!
This is a picture of my grandparent’s wedding from my Catholic side of the family.
- Most obvious answer: Actually have a wedding Mass.
- Start a prayer leading up to the wedding date (such as a dedication to Mary, or a novena to a special Saint) with your future spouse. Say the last prayer together on opposite sides of the confessional (behind the screen) before the ceremony begins.
- Incorporate a rosary, Saint medal, or other blessed object as your something old, something new, something borrowed, or something blue.
- Use your Baptismal candle to light your unity candle. (I realize the unity candle is not traditionally Catholic, but some Catholic couples opt to do this at the reception.)
- Wrap a rosary into your bouquet. (Mine doubled as my “something blue.”)
- Pay for the flower girl dress yourself, then save it for your daughter’s First Communion dress. Or have your flower girl wear your First Communion dress.
- Keep your wedding dress and have it made into a Baptismal gown for your babies.
- In place of the groom removing a garter, have him wash the bride’s feet. A beautiful symbol to start a marriage on.
- Wear a rosary (chaplet) bracelet, and/or give them to your bridesmaids as their gifts.
- Have the flower girl carry a bouquet of flowers, and after processing in, place them in a vase by the Mary statue.
- Get matching bride and groom rosaries, and have them blessed by the priest following the ceremony.
- Include a kneeler for the bride and groom to use during the ceremony. Don’t forget to take pictures of using it!
- During the ceremony, the couple can bring a bouquet of flowers over for Mary as the Ave Maria is sung.
- Choose a religious song for your first dance.
- Have your wedding program include an outline of the Mass for non-Catholics, as well as directions about who should and shouldn’t be receiving the Eucharist.
- Get a wedding Bible, and have the readings from your wedding read out of your actual Bible.
- Get married on a Saint day that is special to you.
- Give out Catholic wedding favors, such as rosaries, custom prayer cards, Saint medals, etc. Look to Autom for affordable bulk order Catholic stuff.
- Purchase a chalice and paton to be used at the ceremony as a wedding gift to the couple. Surprise them with it at the reception. This can be displayed with wedding photos, and can be used in important Masses later on (such as Baptism Masses.)
- Have the flower petals from your wedding made into a rosary later.
- Include framed photos of your deceased loved ones at the ceremony or reception with candles to remember them.
- Get the couple a Papal blessing as a wedding gift.
- Have the priest do confession for you and your future husband before the ceremony.
- Get a crucifix to put over your marriage bed and have it blessed during your Nuptial Mass.
- Rather than clinking glasses to make the bride and groom kiss, announce that you have to put a donation in a jar to make them kiss. The bride and groom choose their favorite charity and let everyone know where the money will be donated.
- Last but not least- have a child-friendly reception. What could be more Catholic? 😉 I’ve seen coloring books, receptions at venues with playgrounds, child-friendly food on lower tables, and I even went to a wedding where they rented one of those bouncy houses for kids to jump in outside. It was a hit!
Post continues after this brief information about the Catholic Icing Monthly Membership
Monthly Liturgical Membership
I recently read this post from Kristen: What I Want My Daughters To Know About My Wedding. It talks about how much more important the marriage is than the actual wedding day. So true. Don’t get so wrapped up in preparing for one day that you forget about the rest of your life.
I would also encourage you to check out my Catholic Wedding Ideas Pinterest board, especially for photo shoot inspiration. Now it’s your turn! What ideas do you have for a Catholic wedding?
My grandmother carried a German prayer book decorated with flowers and ribbons. It carried down with my Mom, aunts, cousins, and sisters. I carried it along with my bouquet. The book now has the names of brides and grooms and wedding dates in it. The next generation has started using it. I don’t know where their names are going since the end papers were out of room. 😉
At one of the best Catholic weddings we have ever attended, they named the guest tables after their favorite saints instead of using numbers! We sat at St. Rose of Lima, decorated with holy cards! Fabulous!
Our family attended a wedding (that God used my hubby and I as the matchmakers for the couple) and they also used Saint names for the tables! I loved it!
Happy Anniversary Lacy! My husband and I celebrated 17 years on July 12! I love this list and when we got married my husband wasn’t Catholic (yet) so we didn’t have a Mass, though we got married in the Catholic Church. He came into the Church in 2006. Praise God! We do have a framed papal wedding blessing from Saint John Paul II that I treasure. You can see this wedding memento and others on my anniversary post from July here: http://asliceofsmithlife.blogspot.com/2014/07/17-years-ago-we-said-i-do-and-17.html
One anniversary tradition we love to do each year since year 1 is watch our wedding video. And now our kids look forward to watching it with us as the younger ones have asked us through the years, “Where am I Mommy and Daddy?” 😉 Our video is “dinosaur age” since there was no digital video back then in 1997 and the coloring is “90ish”. I love the corded mic that our guests spoke into to wish us well and how my now deceased grandfather stated his name on the video not realizing we could hear him and SEE him. Haha! It’s also bittersweet to watch our video annually as we see those family and friends who have passed on since our wedding 🙁
Have a blessed anniversary and thank you for your family being a beautiful light of love and hope in our crazy world ! 🙂
My birthday is July 12! We also watch our wedding video every year. 🙂
Oh that’s cool! That’s great you have a wedding video to watch 🙂 My sister didn’t have a video for her wedding and I was disappointed she didn’t get one done since we enjoy ours so much ! 🙂
There is a catholic custom to place a crucifix on the kneeler in front of the couple and the couple lay their hands on the crucifix as they make their vows. As a symbolism that they are following the Way of Christ and the cross in their marriage.
Something beautiful my parents did was promise together at our Lady’s Altar to say their Rosary everyday. My sisters did the same. There is a prayer and a paper that they got signed. My parents have been married 35 years and have not missed a day.
Congratulations on your anniversary!
Another idea is to have a holy card made with a prayer or name/date on the back to remember to pray for married couples.
One correction -it is a ‘garter’ not ‘guarder’!
Comment-Unity candles are not typically a part of a Catholic wedding ceremony, though it is wonderful to honor Our Lady with flowers or lighted candle.
I saved my wedding dress and had my daughters first communion dress made from it. It was pretty simple but she loved that it was made from my dress.
My daughter wore my wedding veil on for her 1st communion. We did it to save money because my husband and I had both lost our jobs. Everyone commented on the great idea.
Lacy, Happy Anniversary! I carried my great Aunt’s rosary in my bouquet. We were married on October 7th, the Feast of Holy Rosary. Our keepers were little plastic canvas and ribbon crosses that can be used as book marks. I still have one that hangs in my car. Instead of tossing the bouquet we invited all married couples up on the dance floor. The music began and couples were asked to leave if they were married less than 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, etc. The final couple on the dance floor was given my “toss” bouquet.
Instead of a “unity” candle we used an old catholic spanish tradition of a wedding rosary lazo: a double rosary that was placed over each of us uniting us through Our blessed Mother to Christ! One of my mother’s friends gave the lazo to us, she brought it back from Mexico. My brother and sister in-law were married last month and they did the same thing. My father in-law made the rosary for them to match the wedding colors. It was very beautiful and sentimental because he put so much love into making it for them.
Happy Anniversary! We wrote a prayer before we got married. We each wrote our own part and then we wrote a part together and read it after our vows during the presentation of the flowers to the Blessed Mother. We pray it every anniversary. Our parents who had been married each 40 years that year so we had an anniversary blessing that the priest did from his book of blessings for them. We did a lot of the things from up above too. Great post.
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road.
Cheers