2 Wedding Ceremonies and License question

[wgmann03]

I will be getting married in Georgia, USA.



I am Catholic and my Fiancee is Baptist. She is set on having an outdoor wedding. We both agreed on having two seperate ceremonies. The first wedding would be in a Catholic church and the 2nd ceremony would by done by a seperate officiant. Now, my fiancee wants the marriage license date to match the 2nd ceremony. Is that possible?

[thedoctorisin]

Originally Posted by wgmann03

Is that possible?

That's between you and the Catholic Church. The second ceremony would be the full, complete, and only legal ceremony as far as the U.S. government and the state of Georgia are concerned. The first ceremony would just be a private get-together held inside a church building with a lot of people dressed up in wedding clothes.

Just FYI, such an arrangement is completely against Catholic canon law, so I would be surprised if the Catholic priest would agree to it:

Can. 1127 §3. It is forbidden to have another religious celebration of the same marriage to give or renew matrimonial consent before or after the canonical celebration according to the norm of §1. Likewise, there is not to be a religious celebration in which the Catholic who is assisting and a non-Catholic minister together, using their own rites, ask for the consent of the parties.

[url=http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3V.HTM]Code of Canon Law - IntraText[/url]

[wgmann03]

From what I was told, we can be given a dispensation OR the second wedding ceremony is strictly civil.

[proud_parent]

Originally Posted by wgmann03

From what I was told, we can be given a dispensation OR the second wedding ceremony is strictly civil.

Not quite. You can request a "dispensation from canonical form". If granted, however, such dispensation would permit you to wed in a civil ceremony in lieu of (not in addition to) a Catholic ceremony.