Wedding

Dear friends, if you are preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage, I wish you happiness, love, and may your family life always stand under God's blessing. The Wedding service could be more accurately called "of Crowning" or "of Coronation", because during it the bride and groom are crowned like emperors – so high is the appreciation of the Sacrament of Marriage in the Church. Therefore, please read the lines below yourselves, take heed and do as your heart urges: do not let others organize the most important moment of your family life for you, nor treat it just as an opportunity for material gain.

Just as civil marriage is subject to civil laws, religious marriage must respect Church ordinances. Marriage is not a formality complementing civil marriage, but the fundamental act of founding a family in the Church and, consequently, must be received with the respect and understanding due to this Holy Sacrament. Do not hesitate to contact me for any question or doubt regarding the Wedding service. (Father Ioan-Florin Florescu)

On this page you will find information, recommendations, and ordinances about:

  • Fixing the wedding date
  • Mandatory catechetical preparation of the bride and groom
  • Wedding day: Saturday or Sunday?
  • Choosing wedding godparents
  • Service structure

Before fixing the wedding date

Since religious marriage cannot be performed on any day of the year – (and it is not only about fasting days) –, please contact me in time, before fixing the wedding date, to check together if the wedding can be officiated on the date you desire.

Catechetical preparation of the bride and groom

"Catechesis" means instruction or teaching of faith. The Church strongly recommends a period of catechization of the bride and groom before the wedding. This catechization has the role of making the bride and groom responsible, once more, for their choice, leading them to deepen the Christian understanding of family life and the teaching of faith.

Important: In the Edinburgh Parish, as in other Romanian parishes, catechization of future brides and grooms is a mandatory stage before the wedding. Please contact me in time to give you all the necessary information.

Saturday or Sunday?

Although most weddings are organized on Saturdays, for "practical" reasons, this is not the most suitable day, because the next day, Sunday, neither the bride and groom nor the wedding guests will reach the Holy Liturgy, the highest prayer and service of the Church. The first Sunday of the new family's life should stand under the blessing of the Liturgy. The Church Fathers recommend with all their heart that you fix your wedding date on a Sunday. The party after the wedding can also start on Sunday afternoon, earlier, and whoever truly wants to come, will come then too. From people you lose nothing, and from God you gain His blessing! The wedding on Sunday can be officiated even during the Liturgy (as in the Church of the first centuries) or immediately after the Liturgy.

Recommendation: The Church Fathers recommend with all their heart that you fix your wedding date on a Sunday.

Choosing wedding godparents

Wedding godparents are witnesses, guarantors, and spiritual parents of the bride and groom. A family can stand as godparents only if they themselves are religiously married. Unmarried couples cannot be wedding godparents. Also, the Church recommends choosing a single family as godparents; weddings with multiple pairs of godparents are not part of the church ordinance. Before participating in the Wedding service, godparents have the duty to confess and receive communion at the parish church they belong to.

Service structure

The service (of Betrothal and) of Crowning has the following parts:

1. Betrothal

(with blessing and placing of rings). Betrothal has the significance of mutual promises made by the future bride and groom and their understanding regarding marriage, and the Church prays "for the strengthening of the word they have given each other".

Currently, Betrothal is usually officiated immediately before the Wedding, within the same service, but it constitutes a distinct service, which can also be performed much earlier before the Wedding. However, it must be understood that Betrothal in the Church does not mean founding a family nor does it allow the beginning of conjugal life.

2. The Wedding service proper

consists of:

  1. 1. Prayers of blessing for the bride and groom and for the birth of children;
  2. 2. Crowning (placing of crowns)
  3. 3. Readings from Epistles and Gospel;
  4. 4. Prayers for the fidelity of conjugal life;
  5. 5. Symbolic tasting from the same cup of wine and from the same piece of bread. (If the Wedding service is done within the Liturgy, instead of ordinary wine and bread the bride and groom will receive communion.);
  6. 6. Ritual dance ("O Isaiah, dance your joy!");
  7. 7. Vows with hand on Gospel and Cross (removal of crowns);
  8. 8. Worship in church.