Sacrament of Marriage
The Sacrament of Marriage is a lifetime union between a man and a woman. On their wedding day, the couple professes their love before God and the Church.
They promise to love, respect, honor and be faithful to each other. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."Genesis 2-24
To be married at St. Gregory, couples must attend a preparation course and other requirements. Please make an appointment with St. Gregory's Wedding coordinator at least six months in advance of their intended wedding date.
During the process of wedding preparation, the time should be of learning and growth in your love for one another in the practice of your Catholic faith. Therefore, we strongly encourage our couples to attend Sunday Mass regularly together and faithfully.
Furthermore, please frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession as often as possible, but in particular a few days before the wedding ceremony. The faithful reception of these sacraments will deepen your spiritual lives and enhance the quality of your wedding liturgy.
Initial Assessment
Once you have read these guidelines, please email the Wedding Coordinator and include in your message a contact telephone number. The Wedding Coordinator will send you an initial application form and you will be able to set up a tentative wedding date.
You will also be contacted by the church's office to set up an appointment with the priest that will accompany you throughout this journey toward marriage.
Within the initial wedding package you will find a paper entitled “Your Wedding Celebration”. This paper will help you organize all aspects of the wedding liturgy. Please recall that the majority of our weddings are performed in the context of Sacred Liturgy (the Mass).
Some couples come to us with a history of a prior marriage. From the beginning let the priest know your marital status/history. We are here to help you. If you were previously married, you will need to bring the following documents:
- A copy of your prior civil wedding license certificate.
- A copy of your final civil divorce decree.
- Original annulment decree issued by a church marriage tribunal (when applicable)
If a couple needs to begin an annulment process, please know that no wedding date can be set until the annulment process is fully resolved. No wedding date, even tentative, will be given until the issue of the prior marriage is fully settled by a church marriage tribunal.
In the event that there is a civil marriage and divorce we will submit proper canonical lack of form documentation to the Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Miami, and for this process we shall need a $100 money order or check made payable to Saint Gregory Catholic Church.
Please be completely honest in this regard. If the issue of a prior marriage should arise later, the Pastor withholds the right to cancel the wedding date and time altogether.
From the very beginning and throughout your entire wedding preparation, we communicate only with the bride and groom. While we acknowledge, understand, comprehend, support their interest in the marriage ceremony of their son or daughter, should parents (or any other relative or friend) contact us regarding your marriage plans, we shall immediately thank them for their interest and refer them back to you, the couple. The bride and the groom together are the only persons who communicate decisions to us.
Further, many couples do not appreciate their future-in-laws phoning the Pastor (or Wedding Coordinator) and trying to influence or change the decisions that they have already made and communicated to the parish priest and staff. Kindly, explain, from the beginning, that you alone will organize your wedding day and future marriage.