My boyfriend and I have dcecided to get married in Hawaii and more than likely it will be just the two of us if not then 2 people will be joing us.
I need help on good locations for our event something very romantic and with candles. Yes I have gone on line and have found loads of places but there is one thing I need that I can't find on line and that is a Catholic priest. I don't know the the rules in the church as to if you can get married out side and not in the church if we have to get married in a church I want one with the view of the beach if there is one. Please anyone who can help me with this I would be so thankful as I am having no luck.
We will be going the first week in December to get married and yes it has to be a catholic service.
Thank you! - Desperate!

to have a catholic wedding, you have to get married in a catholic church, not outside, and you also have to get a dispensation from the brides parish to be "allowed" to get married in another church.

so what i would do is find the number of the diocese in hawaii where you want to go, call the churches and see if they will marry non-parish members. if they say yes, then you have to convince your parish to release your baptismal records and allow you to marry elsewhere.

in my opinion based on dealing w/the RCC regarding weddings, you have a snowballs chance in hell of getting this done. i don't foresee churches at either end being too agreeable to this.

good luck.

B2B -

Congrats on your upcoming wedding. You do need to talk to the priest in your diocese to see how you can get this done. I know plenty of people who have gotten married out of town in a Catholic wedding.

It is my understanding that to be married by the Catholic church, it must be in a church, but I may be wrong.

Also, check out rent a priest (I have only heard about it, but you can find it on the web). It wouldn't be recognized by the Catholic church, but it may work if you want to get married on the beach.

Best wishes.

In addition to what lilysmom said, you have to have at least 6 months (some Catholic Churches require a year) of pre-marital counseling and classes before they will marry you. Some Catholic Churches also require you to take a compatibilty or personality test to assess if you are ready for the commitment of marriage.

Here is the website address for the Diocese of Hawaii and the requirements for getting married there.

http://www.catholichawaii.com/tribunal

You also need to contact your own parish priest asap as you will have to fulfil their requirements, get the necessary documentation etc.

Good luck!

Hi-
Congrats on your wedding!

From your post, I felt that you MAY not be Catholic (as you stated you are not familiar with the "rules")and I just wanted to let you know, you will also find a lot of difficulty finding a Catholic priest to marry you IF you are not Catholic. Not saying it can't be done, but I have had friends that have had to really search for a priest to marry them in the Catholic Church when either themselves or their fiance was not Catholic.
Obviously this might not apply to you.

I got married 3 years ago in the Catholic Church I had been a member of all my life with a parish priest who had been a family friend for 10+years, and let me tell you that the rules were not even bent a little bit when it came to the wedding ceremony. Weddings in the Catholic church are serious business and considered very sacred, hence very little "rule-breaking"
I also believe that you have to get married IN A CATHOLIC CHURCH to be married by A CATHOLIC PRIEST. No Disney wedidngs. No underwater,plane jumping weddings. And unless the church is on a beach-no beach weddings.
Good luck with your plans and whatever you decide, and again congratulations!

First, a very big congratulations = )
Do you attend church regularly? I believe it must be set up by the priest in your local parish. We wanted to get married in London, the priest told us it would be a year long wait and that it was a very long process to get married in another church thus we decided to get married at home. And also, like the above poster said you must have the pre-marital counseling, some have overnight stay counseling, some last the weekend and varies by parish.
Warm wishes!

Topping for EVERYONE to see!

I had a wedding outside of my parish and it was not a problem. My husband isn't even Catholic, but we had a Catholic wedding in Charleston, SC and we live in Columbia. Granted, the Diocese is the same, but the paperwork was also the same. Often, you can find a priest who will grant you an outdoor wedding as long as the ceremony is traditional and the priest officiates. The Church doesn't make it as hard for you as some may think. Just get your baptismal certificates for you and your husband, and send them to your chosen church. About the counseling... you can do your pre-cana in your home parish with your priest and they send the paperwork of completion to the priest that will officiate your ceremony. Don't worry. It will all work out fine. Besides, I'm sure Hawaiian priest get outdoor requests all the time.

Olivia-Obviously, you are new and haven't been following this saga. B2B was going to surprise her fiance with a Catholic wedding in Hawaii. Now, I don't know about your diocese, but mine frowns on surprise weddings. Also, b2b claimed to be dying of cancer on this thread and in another thread stated she was looking for a fun place to party in NYC. (No mention of sickness there.) Fodor's ended up deleting the other threads and I think kicked B2B outta here....

I had no idea. And you're right, my diocese doesn't like surprise weddings. I'm new to Fodor's and didn't know the saga. I hope the freaks stay out of here, while the rest of us are trying to learn something and share ideas.

The sad part is people were really trying to help B2B and gave her some really good information. But her/his story kept getting more and more bizarre. When some people started to question B2B she resorted to profanity and rudeness. That's when Fodor's pulled the plug.