Wedding Preparations - The Mass
There’s a thousand things to be done for a wedding! When RD and I first decided to marry, it was July last year - it seemed almost yesterday. Now, the Day is a mere four months away.
After the initial rush of excitement, we booked our hotel, church and priest. Then, I sort committed the whole wedding thing to one corner of my mind. But now, I’ve been gently reminded that time is a-ticking, and I have to start planning and getting things done if I expect a half-decent celebration (you can guess who reminded me).
First on my list is the Wedding Mass. We’ve collected numerous examples of wedding masses (in fact, I still have copies of MH/DF and JR/TK’s wedding masses in softcopy) but it doesn’t really help to resolve any inconsitencies between them. For one thing, some of these are Communion services, while others celebrate the full Eucharist (for those uninitiated, you can visit the Catholic Encyclopedia for more information). Well, there are several guides for those who wish to find out more about the preparing the Rite of Marriage:
- The Rite of Marriage is the most comprehensive source about the form and content of a wedding Mass. Invaluable aid - borrow it from your closest priest.
- The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, translated to English by the International Committee on English in the Liturgy, 2002 - an authoritative guide to how to celebrate the Mass.
- The Catholic Wedding Book contains some advice and guidelines for preparing for a Catholic Wedding.
So far, so good - the draft of the wedding mass is complete. We still need to review the music and finer details with our priest, choir and others. Next task: guest lists!