catholic ceremony in PV

Hi everyone-

I kinda asked about this in a post a while back, but no one answered me, so I guess I need to be more specific. I basically need someone to explain to me the process of getting married in a Catholic church in Vallarta. Here are my questions:

1) How do you do the whole pre-cana thing if you're not living down there?

2) Do you get a chance to meet with or at least talk to (like over the phone) the priest before the ceremony?

3) Do you have any say in terms of what is said at the ceremony (what readings are done, vows, etc.)?

4) Are you obligated to do a full mass with communion or can I choose not to?

5) Has anyone used a bilingual priest that they really liked and would recommend?

I'm clueless here...please help!

(Oh, and my fiance and I are both Catholic, so that's not an issue.)

Thanks so much!

Hi guerita! I didn't have a Catholic ceremony in PV but I'll try to help based on what I remember from when we considered it.

1) How do you do the whole pre-cana thing if you're not living down there?

You do the pre-cana in advance, in your parish/a parish where you live

2) Do you get a chance to meet with or at least talk to (like over the phone) the priest before the ceremony?

Probably (do you speak Spanish?) I think that a priest in your parish has to forward all of your completed prerequisites to the diocese in Mexico where you will marry...it may even need to be your local bishop that does it, I forget.

Talk to your priest or whoever will prepare you, they know the rules. Also, your Catholic ceremony must be done inside of a church and although is religiously binding, it does not make you legally married when you return home. You also need to have a civil ceremony, either in the U.S. or in Mexico.

3) Do you have any say in terms of what is said at the ceremony (what readings are done, vows, etc.)?

Not sure but I would imagine yes

4) Are you obligated to do a full mass with communion or can I choose not to?

Not sure but I would imagine you may need to do a full mass as it is a traditional country

5) Has anyone used a bilingual priest that they really liked and would recommend?

Not me!

Here are Catholic churches in PV in case you don't have a list:

Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish (Parroquia de Guadalupe)

Hidalgo #370

Downtown Puerto Vallarta

Tel: 222-1326

Sacred Cross Parish (Parroquia de la Santa Cruz)

Lázaro Cárdenas #395 at Aguacate

Tel: 222-0989

Our Lady of the Refuge Parish (Parroquia de Nuestra Señora del Refugio)

Corner of Perú and Argentina

Tel: 222-4980

San Rafael Parish (Parroquia San Rafael)

Calle Jamaica

Tel: 222-2440

Sacred Heart of Jesus Church (Templo Sagrado Corazón de Jesús)

Plaza Paritzica # 17 Col. Aramara

Tel: 224-0329

Virgen of Talpa Church (Iglesia de la Virgen de Talpa)

Plaza Central Sur #167

Tel: 224-1323

A wedding planner will make this much easier for you. Have you searched this site? Above & to the right is the search function where you can look it up.

Also google is your friend, search for this topic and you'll find what you need. Good luck!

Hi I'm actually in the process of sending all the paper work necessar to have my ceremony at Our Lady of Guadalupe CHurch.

1. We had to talk to our parish priest first to give us the permission to take the Pre-Cana seminar ( which is one day only) . This seminar needs to be taken first before we could take the next classe(s)

2. After the pre-cana we were given th choice to pick either a six week class ( once a week only) or a weekend retreat. We did the evenings for the engaged instead of the retreat, much cheaper.

3. After we were done with the evening classes we are now getting all of our certificates which include : baptism( most recent copy), communion, confermation, pre-cana, evening for the engaged or retreat, marriage certificate.

4. My fiance and I got married legally about a year ago , so it's recommende you do this before the wedding date.

5. Once you have all these documents you can go to your parish priest and fill out an application as if you were getting married at your home church. Then the applicaiton and copies of the documents are sent to the chancellor of the Dioses to sign and approve you.

6. Then the chancellor send those documents by mail to the church in puerto vallarta were you will be having the ceremony.

This was long but if I have anymore info I can let you know asap.

Additional to the Churches that Jaime mentioned is the one at the Marina: Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz, if you are interested PM and I will get the phone number for you.

We are getting married at the Parroquia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe

1) How do you do the whole pre-cana thing if you're not living down there?

As everyone mentioned, you do this at home with your priest and parish. Your priest will guide you from that point. He knows what needs to get done And yes, you do need to get legally married before the Catholic ceremony if you do not plan on having a legal ceremony in MX as the Church in Mx will need proof of legal marriage

2) Do you get a chance to meet with or at least talk to (like over the phone) the priest before the ceremony?

No, the priests at this particular church are so hard to get a hold of, believe me we tried. Our WC actually advised us against getting married at this church since they are VERY strict and not to friendly, haha.

3) Do you have any say in terms of what is said at the ceremony (what readings are done, vows, etc.)?

We can choose the readings, but I think it depends how lax the priest is. Just like here in the states, you may have a strict priest or not.

4) Are you obligated to do a full mass with communion or can I choose not to?

I never asked, however I've read in a review (yahoo pv brides) that they choose not to have a full mass. When we first contacted the PDNSG, they told my FI that the mass would only be 1/2 hour (hence, not a full mass) however, once we hired our WC and she called to book, we no have a full 1-hr mass. So I'm sure you can just ask.

5) Has anyone used a bilingual priest that they really liked and would recommend?

No, sorry.

Thanks for all your responses. We actually already have the church booked (Nuestra Senora Reina de la Paz in the Marina), but I know there's so much more to do in order to get married there. We'll also be getting legally married before the ceremony (this fall, actually).

To be honest, I didn't really want to get married in a Catholic church because I'd really like to work with a more liberal priest who would be open to my ideas (so we could make the ceremony a little more personalized, instead of just a cookie-cutter Catholic ceremony), and I realize that finding a liberal priest in Mexico is highly unlikely (in fact, "liberal priest" is probably the biggest oxymoron for them!).

I wonder if I were to find a priest from somewhere else in Mexico or even if I flew one in from the States, would the church allow that priest to perform the ceremony? I'm seriously considering it, even though I know it would be rather costly, just because it's so important to me to have a ceremony that I feel comfortable with. I've been to weddings before where the priest sees it as an opportunity to preach about gay marriage being wrong (or at least implying it, by repeatedly saying things like "marriage is a sacred bond between a MAN and a WOMAN"), or saying that a wife must serve her husband, etc., and I'm terrified that whatever priest does our ceremony is going to do the same thing, and I'm going to be tempted to walk out of my own wedding!!!

Anyway, thanks again for your responses, and for listening to my rant. It feels good to get that out

I think the priest of the Nuestra Señora de la Paz in the Marina Area is not as traditional as others, I went to a Wedding Celebration there and he did speak some english and was more kind of relax .. try to arrange a meeting with him prior to your wedding, you can bring your own program (readings) , the only day you cant change the readings are on Sundays....

I am looking for a church too (We wanted Maria Reina but its like an hour from our resort)

If anyone knows any churches south of town - we are staying at the Barcelo, I would really appreciate it!

Also this site has some email addresses for churches:

Visite PV: Iglesias

Annette have you tried our Lady of Guadalupe downtown?