12403 Catholic Wedding in Lucca

My husband and I were married at City Hall in New York but want to have our religious ceremony in Lucca. We are both catholic, have been baptized, confirmed, and are parish members in the US. We also have a friend that is a priest in Rome who will either marry us or concelebrate with a local priest.

The problem we're having is finding a Catholic Church in Lucca given we are trying to get married on a very difficult weekend for the church (easter weekend). It's possible that we could press our families to have the wedding the weekend before or the weekend after but many people have school-age children and don't want to take them out of school to travel.

We will be in Lucca next week and want to try to speak with a priest or administrator at a few churches (or someone who could advise on the availability overall) but I'm not sure who to contact. I've asked the hotel where we're planning to have our guests stay to help but I thought I'd send out a question to the group in case someone had advice. The ony thing we're sure of at the moment is that we can't be married on Holy Saturday as it requires papal dispensation.

Thanks in advance!

Category
Weddings in Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 16:51

Hi Allegra and welcome to the Forum. It is true that you will not be able to be married on Holy Saturday and I think that weddings cannot be celebrated during most of the Holy Week; however, although it takes a bit of convincing, you can be married the Saturday that precedes Palm Sunday. There should not be any problems for the 1st Saturday after Easter.
My advice would be to contact the priest who is going to either celebrate or concelebrate and ask him to talk to the appropriate authorities on your behalf. It is easier for them to smooth up everything amongst themselves.
I have attended a few years ago a very large wedding celebrated on the eve of Palm Sunday. I know that it was a bit difficult to convince the parish priest but he finally understood the situation as many guests were coming from overseas. It was not in Italy, though; however, I think that the same rules apply everywhere.
Each church and parish has its own office, but you could contact either the Arcidiocesi di Lucca 15 v. Arcivescovato or the "Arcivescovato" itself on Nr 2 of the same "via". They may be able to help.
Congratulations and best wishes!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 14:01

Hi [FONT=Palatino Linotype]Gala, Thank you so much for your quick response. I've already sent a note to my friend in Rome and will try to stop by the two locations you mentioned when I'm in Lucca. Hopefully we'll be able to find something that works for the dates our family is available.

Allegra
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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 14:20

Another idea, if you can't get one of the large parishes in Lucca to help on the Saturday before Palm Sunday because of processions and celebrations, perhaps a smaller church in the neighbourhood may be able to help. It also depends on the number of guests you are expecting to attend. A very large church with a limited number of people attending does not look good and it will lack the appropriate atmosphere for the celebration. As you are going over there and you know the number of guests, just look around.
Also, a reminder that you will have to attend the courses at your local parish before the ceremony.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 14:52

Great suggestion! We're planning on having only 30-60 people (likely closer to 30 than 60) so we'd really prefer a smaller church for the ceremony. Also, we may try to plan for the Monday after Easter to avoid Lent and Holy Week given most children will have the week following Easter off anyway.

In terms of pre-work, we're planning to do our Pre-Cana here in the states once we move to our new apartment and start attending a church in the area. If we start in NY we'll have trouble finishing up after the move.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 15:18

I don't know how they run the Pre-Cana courses in NYC, but I will advise you to contact St Anthony's Church in the Soho as it is the Italian church there and they may also be able to help.
[url]http://stanthonynyc.com/[/url]
I used to go there when my eldest daughter was living in NYC and they are lovely.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/10/2009 - 15:50

Excellent idea! I will do exactly that when I get back to NYC.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/11/2009 - 12:29

Good luck with the wedding plans. If memory serves there was also a bride to be recently on the forum looking at organising a wedding in that part of the world. maybe you could do a search and PM her for help.