# Tell me about Catholic wedding ceremonies, please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620 "2009-10-21T16:11:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620/61 "2009-10-23T17:24:01Z")
> [@hellpaso](#): > > My older daughter is getting married next week in a Catholic ceremony (she embraced the religion a few years ago). I have never been to any kind of Catholic ceremony in my life, nor have I been to any christian services in over 30 years. My wedding took about 5 minutes at the courthouse. I’ve heard rumors that this Catholic thing can last for an hour. Is that true?? Please share any and all details so I can brace myself. Thanks in advance.😕 Bummer that it’s your daughter and not someone else. I did a full-blown catholic wedding years ago and it. was. interminable. My new approach to these services is to skip the wedding altogether and do only the reception. Obviously, this isn’t an option for you. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620/62 "2009-10-23T17:38:00Z")
Oh, and depending on the content of the sermon, you may wish to be seated next to a friend of similar temperment and sense of humor, so that you can poke each other when the priest says things that you’d love to make comments about. A couple of years ago, I had my boyfriend at the time cracking up just by squeezing his hand at certain things the priest said, because he knew exactly what kinds of things I’d be saying if I could. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620/63 "2009-10-23T17:47:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For most other Christian sects, you’re correct, and therefore most other Christian sects are not invited to share in Catholic Communion. The Orthodox, though, agree on that particular point of theology, and so are permitted (from the Roman Catholic point of view) to share in the Eucharist. Most Orthodox bishops, however, do not allow their members to participate in Roman Catholic Communion, for reasons of their own. There’s a greater level of local autonomy in the Orthodox churches, though, so some do allow it. Right, but **Polycarp** talked about the Orthodox, and then he mentioned “many other churches” that believe in the Real Presence but aren’t welcome to receive communion in a Catholic church. So…I’m wondering what those churches are, and how similar their theology of the Real Presence is to RCC theology. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620/64 "2009-10-23T18:19:39Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > My new approach to these services is to skip the wedding altogether and do only the reception. Obviously, this isn’t an option for you. Good luck. The Catholic weddings I’ve been invited to all assumed that I would skip the service. Glad somebody else takes this approach.😃 ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620/65 "2009-10-23T18:31:06Z")
I am a Catholic. My friend the groom converted to Catholicism in order to marry the bride (yeah, who else was in going to marry in this story?). I was an usher, and shortly before the wedding mass started the groom’s mother said to me, “Zam, you’re a Catholic, and I’m not. Is there anything special I need to be aware of during the service?” I said, “Just be aware that after the readings are done we all break for bingo.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620/66 "2009-10-23T23:10:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Right, but Polycarp talked about the Orthodox, and then he mentioned “many other churches” that believe in the Real Presence but aren’t welcome to receive communion in a Catholic church. So…I’m wondering what those churches are, and how similar their theology of the Real Presence is to RCC theology. It’s complicated, and really deserves its own thread. The short version is that the Roman Catholic Church and a few others believe in transubstantiation, which means that the inherent substance of the bread and wine, what they “really are” (as distinct from what they’re observed to be) is utterly changed, such that, in some “real” sense, they’re no longer bread and wine, but really flesh and blood that just happens to look, taste, etc. just like bread and wine. The Anglicans, as I understand it (and **Polycarp** is welcome to correct me on the details) believe that the bread and wine take on the real substance of body and blood, but are silent on the question of whether they retain the substance of bread and wine at all (so it might be full transubstantiation, but it might be that the wafers are simultaneously really the Body and really bread at the same time). The Lutherans believe that there is a Real Presence of Christ in the communion elements, but don’t say whether this is reflected in the inherent substance, or in some other way. And most Protestant sects believe that there is no Real Presence in the communion elements at all, but that what we do is just a reminder of the Last Supper. And yes, that was the short answer. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620/67 "2009-10-24T16:41:45Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > And at a Hindu wedding, you’re under absolutely no obligation to sit quietly and watch. The religious ceremony itself is only for the people actually participating in it. Everyone else is free to chit-chat, walk around, have a snack, whatever. That’s what makes western-style weddings excruciating. It’s like being forced to sit silently through a badly scripted and boring performance. Well, it’s only an hour or so. Don’t Hindu weddings go for several days? Of course they cannot force you to sit quietly for the whole thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-catholic-wedding-ceremonies-please/514620.md?page=3)