Church in PV? Lady of Guadelupe?

[marisolhernandez]

Hi Everyone,

 

We are trying to decide if we want to get married in the Church, or have a beach wedding. For those of you who got married at the Cathedral of our Lady of Guadelupe....was it expensive? hard to book? were the clergy and staff members easy to work with? I know that my church here has really rigid rules when it comes to getting married....

[starchild]

I believe AmyH is getting married there, you also may want to search for the church name (above, right) because I think it was discussed before

[amyh]

Hi Marisol, I replied to your PM, but I'll post here too just in case anyone else wants the same info.

 

(IMHO) it is very hard to get a hold of the priest at this church in PV. We played phone tag often. We contacted the church once we set a date, which was more than a year ago and they said we needed to wait until Nov 2007 too book our July 2008 wedding. Once the date came around, we couldn't get a confirmation of our time/date. This (and other issues) was the main reason we decided to hire a WC.

 

I know others have booked this church on their own, but I just needed piece of mind and was tired of stressing over it.

 

My WC did say this church was very difficult, and actually recommended we use the one in the Marina (edna mora is marrying there), but I really wanted to get married at the Parroquia de nuestra senora de Guadalupe since its a landmark in PV.

 

Sorry this was so long, but yes, it was difficult. I believe the "donation" is about MX$2000 pesos.

[marisolhernandez]

Thanks guys! this was really helpful! I think that I am going to look into get a WC. They seem to be worth the stress relief!

[Lammy2609]

We have "reserved" the church for our wedding next Feb, but still have a few concerns given all the conflicting information we have gotten from different WCs.

 

Originally we were told by a WC that we had to book in person, and not more than 6 months in advance. Then we went to mass last November when we were in Vallarta, and we were told to come back 6 months before the wedding, like March or April (not exactly 6 months in advance). Then we finally decided on a planner who said we didnt have to book in person, and they were able to reserve the date for us. I did talk to 2 references who had also booked the church through this planner and not in person, which is part of the reason we decided on our WC.

 

We were also told different stories about rehearsals and decor. The planner we decided to use says that we will be able to go in the day before for a rehearsal, and we will have access to the church before the ceremony in order to decorate. Other planners said that rehearsals and decorations were not possible.

 

My only other concern with the church is the "English factor." We went to English mass and didn't understand a single word. The combination of not-so-great English skills, a bad PA system, and all of the fans mae the priest completely unintelligable. Some of the references I talked to said that they had the same experience during their weddings. At Our Lady of Guadalupe, you cannot request which priest will perform the ceremony. We may turn off the fans and hope for the best, or just opt for the ceremony to be performed in Spanish and I will have to learn my part.

 

One of the WCs we met with recommended Our Lady of Refuge as an alternate church. She said they are easier to work with and you can choose which priest you prefer to perform the ceremony. I saw some pics online - it looks very pretty, but not as beautiful as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

 

The most important first step is to get all of the paperwork together with your church at home. We had to fill our 2 forms ourselves, have 2 witnesses fill out forms, take a 200 question "test", provide recent copies of our baptismal certificates, and take pre-cana classes before our church could send everything to the archdiocese here in SF. From there, the archdiocese will send to the archdiocese in Tepic (NOT Guadalajara) and the archdiocese will send everything to the church in Vallarta.

 

Hope this helps!

[Maura]

i believe monika (adamsgrrl) also got married at our lady of guadalupe at the last minute when the original church she booked neglected to tell her they were under construction and there would be scaffolding everywhere, so she switched a few days before. the photos are absolutely beautiful, you should do a search for her.

[amyh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mauraw i believe monika (adamsgrrl) also got married at our lady of guadalupe at the last minute when the original church she booked neglected to tell her they were under construction and there would be scaffolding everywhere, so she switched a few days before. the photos are absolutely beautiful, you should do a search for her.

No, she was married in RM not PV.