Catholic Wedding Ceremony - part 1

Welll, this is not exactly about flowers, but this post is still related to the weddings particularly Catholic wedding ceremony in Indonesia, so I guess it’s still fine :D . If you’re planning a Catholic wedding we hope this post will give you insight on the ritual. Whaat? You’re not a Catholic? Don’t worry we plan to post wedding ceremonies from other religions soon! So lets start, shall we?

1.      Bride and Groom Blessing / Pemberkatan Mempelai

Like any other Catholic rites, a catholic wedding will began with a blessing. In Indonesia this blessing has two variations, whether the couple being blessed before entering the church or at the main altar. The choir will sing the entrance song at this point and it’s usually the most memorable song for the guests, so pick the song carefully!!

Variation 1: This is the old tradition, where the bride and groom are blessed by the pastor at the church’s entrance.

They then enter the church hand in hand together behind the pastor.

Variation 2: Now this is the new trend in Indonesia, brought in by all those Hollywood movies, where the groom waited in front of the main altar then the bride enters the church with her father.

After the groom receives the bride then the pastor bless them with holy water.

2.      Liturgy of the Word / Liturgi Sabda

The mass then proceed with liturgy of the word session, until the pastor gives light speech. This speech usually contains a bit of interaction with the couple, like a sort of question and answer game to test their level  of love and understanding of each other

3.    The ceremony  of sacramental marriage / Upacara sakramen pernikahan

We now enter the most important session i.e. the Pastor will ask the couple one more time about their willingness to get married, then the wedding vows exchanged, afterward the pastor ask all the guests to pray together for the new family.

Thus the wedding rings will be blessed, and then the couple exchanged rings. Afterward the bride will be unveiled and the groom may kiss the bride. Next the tray containing a Bible, a Holy cross and a Rosario will be blessed too, then we proceed to session 4.

(to be continued in part 2)