Catholic Wedding in Santorini
Santorini is the perfect place for your wedding in Greece. You can choose Santorini as your wedding destination despite your religion and your beliefs. You are free to decide the type of wedding according to your personal creed.
Catholic Wedding is claimed to be the most recognizable type of wedding worldwide. In Greece, there is a minority of Catholic Christians, able to express their religious standpoint freely. Most of Greek Catholic Christians live in islands such as Zante, Rhodes and of course Santorini. There are numerous Catholic Churches located in amazing landscapes. This wonderful background can make your dreamy Catholic Wedding in Santorini true.
However, there are several things, concerning Catholic Wedding Ceremonies in Greece, which you should keep in mind. Let’s see.
- Catholics’ perspective to marriage:
Catholicism considers wedding as a divine gift to humans. God gave this gift to men and women in order to join in an eternal union. This unity is not taken for granted and both husband and wife should try hard to live a happy married life. Catholic Wedding is a public commitment in front of friends, family and God. The couple confesses their love and respect to each other.
- Are there any presuppositions?
At first, it is significant that there are no impediments hampering the wedding’s process. The couple should meet some requirements. These are:
- Age: Both husband and wife must be 18 years old and older.
- Previous Marriage: If one has been married before, he/she should have necessarily been divorced.
- Family Relations: The bride and the groom should not be related by blood.
- Psychological reasons: Both man and woman should not have psychological or mental problems that impede them to realize the meaning of the wedding.
- Psychological pressure: The couple must proceed to the wedding without any external pressure.
- Parts of Catholic Wedding.
Similarly to the Orthodox Wedding, Catholic Wedding Ceremony requires a best man and a priest. Catholic Weddings give the couple the opportunity to have more than one best men and bridesmaids. The groom, together with the best men and the priest, waits for the bride next to the altar. The group of bridesmaids precedes the bride and walk along the wedding aisle before the bride comes in. Then, the bride, accompanied by her father or a male relative, walks through the aisle. The father consigns the bride to the groom. Afterwards, the priest reads holy passages from the Bible in which there are references about marriage and family. After this the couple exchanges vows. The can either they tell them on their own or the priest will read them. The priest asks both husband and wife whether they agree to get married and then the famous “I do” follows. Hopefully you really do! Thereafter, the priest blesses the rings and the couple exchanges them. After the blessing the priest reads a prayer in a favor of the newly married. This prayer is called “The sign of peace”. The couple receives “Holy Communion” in order to receive the divine acceptance. You should take into account that this is a typical Catholic Wedding Ceremony. You are able to cooperate with the priest in order to add or remove anything.
- Keep in mind:
For your Catholic Wedding in Santorini you should keep in mind that:
- The couple should hand in a written assent that they are proceeding to wedding irrevocably and without any doubt.
- In order for this marriage to be legal, you should follow all legal requirements that your wedding planner in Greece will point out.
- There are specific prayers and holy passages that are read during the Catholic Wedding. You will not have much freedom to change that. The priest usually distributes booklets so that the audience keeps in touch with the wedding process.
- Lately, the Greek government decided that Catholic Weddings in Santorini are not allowed to non-permanent residents of Santorini. For further information please contact us at info@santorini-wedding.co