Wedding Ceremony Advice

[missblondie]

So my question is for church recomendations in the North west... I have been doing my own digging, I just wanted to see if anyone could offer some assistance... I am still fairly new to calgary so I was hoping some of the people who have lived here longer may be able to help a bit.

The obstacles that we face are that we are non-denominational which as far as I know leaves all catholic, mormon and seventh day churches out of the question. Does anyone know which churches will support a non denominational couple as I was hoping to rent it and bring in a jp.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Melinda]

^^ I think most united churches are pretty open to non-denominational couples, I know they will integrate the different religions together in a ceremony if there are 2 different religions marrying. I dont see why it would be any different if you were non-denominational

[GSR Zero]

I had the same problem looking for a church for our wedding. Most of the United churches are fairly open but do want you to attend a wedding counselling seminar. They also invite you to attend service with them. So if you are ok with that then try it out. My finance and I ended up going to the Wedding Pavillion. Great place!

[sputnik]

Most churches will require you to take marriage counselling before an members of the clergy will marry you.

So if you are non-religious you may have a difficult time getting married by the pastor/priest of the church. However most churches will rent their facilities out to you and you can bring in anyone you want to marry you.

May I ask why you find it so important to be married in a church by a religious leader without being religious or churchgoing yourself? Seems kind of odd.

Me and my wife are both religious and didnt want to get married in a church at all. So our pastor married us on the patio of a golf clubhouse.

[Ed the SOHC]

I'd check out the wedding pavillion if I were you. My wife and I loved it there.

[Khyron]

You're athiest/agnostic, yet you want a priest?

JPs do good ceremonies - I was lucky enough to get Naomi Whalen to do ours. No regrets and the hall was great. It's not like you have to go downtown and get married in front of the Cecil (though that would be interesting...)

Khyron

[abyss]

United churches are usually the most open about faith. The thing is, if you're not religious and don't believe in that particular churches statement of faith, why would you want to get married there? The United church will STRONGLY recommend (not necessarily require) that you take a marriage preparation course (not counselling per say) it is one weekend and usually around $150/couple. Maybe do research on the church's statement of faith before you decide you want to be married by their pastor, minister etc... it seems odd that you would want a church otherwise. If you just like the "look" of the church wedding and that's what you were going for, then the wedding pavillion is probably perfect for you.

[missblondie]

Well, it isn't actually that we agnostic or athiest at all. I just do not belong to a religious denomination.

It is a church that I would like to get married in, but like was stated above I would like to rent it and bring in a jp if that is possible.

The problem with the wedding pavillion is that you have to use all of their services. We are a multicultural couple (chinese and caucasian) so would like to include aspects of both of these cultures including catering service from both.

We have reserved the sheraton cavalier for the reception now it is just finding a church that will allow us to rent it and bring in a jp.

[Khyron]

Ok it's still confusing. JP services are generally non-religious, so having it inside a huge religious shrine is very weird IMO. I will be quite surprised if any church just rents out their pews and is fine not doing the ceremony.

My sister-in-law wanted a church wedding so she just joined a church for a year before getting married. Otherwise, it's just the building you're after?

Khyron

[B18C]

Originally posted by missblondie
Well, it isn't actually that we agnostic or athiest at all. I just do not belong to a religious denomination.

It is a church that I would like to get married in, but like was stated above I would like to rent it and bring in a jp if that is possible.

The problem with the wedding pavillion is that you have to use all of their services. We are a multicultural couple (chinese and caucasian) so would like to include aspects of both of these cultures including catering service from both.

We have reserved the sheraton cavalier for the reception now it is just finding a church that will allow us to rent it and bring in a jp.

You can just book the Wedding Pavilion for you ceremony. That's what we did. The only thing that I don't like about the Pavilion is that I hear they are pretty strict about your time slot. We have to be there at 1pm and out by 2:30

[missblondie]

Originally posted by B18C


You can just book the Wedding Pavilion for you ceremony. That's what we did. The only thing that I don't like about the Pavilion is that I hear they are pretty strict about your time slot. We have to be there at 1pm and out by 2:30

That is really good to know... I was under the impression that you needed to book your full day with them. Thank you so much for your info!

[GirlsOnFire]

My Aunt rented the old Chapel building in Heritage Park for her wedding and it was amazingly beautiful. You could bring in anyone you want to do the service and the opportunities to do your photos around there would be incredible! They had the limo pull right into the park and up to the little chapel.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by missblondie
now it is just finding a church that will allow us to rent it and bring in a jp.

Most churches will allow this. They usually charge a rental fee for the building and if you need to use their sound guy. However with the recent gay marriage legislation, many churches are allowing only church members to get married in their building.

I was under the impression that you didnt want a JP to marry you.

[jdmakkord]

My best friend just got married at the Ranch in fish creek park. Amazing ceremony, but I believe it is a full package deal too.

[Proyecto2000]

Originally posted by Ed the SOHC
I'd check out the wedding pavillion if I were you. My wife and I loved it there.

my friend just got married there, very nice place

[GSR Zero]

The Wedding Pavillion gives you a 2 hour window for your ceremony. I'm having my ceremony there and both my fiance and I are asian. We're doing our asian ceremony (tea ceremony) at our homes in the morning.

The Wedding Pavillion is great because its a lot of stress taken away from you. They have a coordinator that will take care of everything involved with the ceremony. Cost is a bit high but after I checked out some golf clubs and churches its not too bad.

[abyss]

Some churches will provide a wedding coordinator as well. The United church me and Hampstor are getting married at has a wedding coordinator that is included in the price of the rental. They were very open about mixing religions into the ceremony if we needed it. Hampstor's parents are Buddhist and mine are not really religious at all.

[missblondie]

You guys have been a great help...

Abyss...Thank you very much! I took your advice and looked into the Knox United Church , and they were more than happy to help us as well as marry us... which means it doesn't have to be a jp.

They seemed to be very inviting and welcome to us being multicultural and non denominational... They said it was something that they commonly practice.

[Si_FlyGuy]

Originally posted by jdmakkord
My best friend just got married at the Ranch in fish creek park. Amazing ceremony, but I believe it is a full package deal too.

A friend of mine got married there last year. Cool place, but a little small if you have a lot of guests.

[abyss]

Originally posted by missblondie
You guys have been a great help...

Abyss...Thank you very much! I took your advice and looked into the Knox United Church , and they were more than happy to help us as well as marry us... which means it doesn't have to be a jp.

They seemed to be very inviting and welcome to us being multicultural and non denominational... They said it was something that they commonly practice.

You're welcome, and Congratulations! Knox is BEAUTIFUL, we almost chose it for our ceremony, but decided on another church last minute because of location.