Catholic Weddings in Los Angeles

Unlike in the Philippines, Catholic churches in Los Angeles do not require both couples to be baptized Roman Catholics. After having spoken to two churches, it appears that the Diocese of Los Angeles's has some standard requirements. A few I found interesting were...

1. We must sign a document committing to raise our children Catholic. This was okay with me because I had fully intended to do this anyway. :)

2. The bride and groom must each complete a 180-question test that gauges whether we are compatible and mature enough to marry. They actually said that you can FAIL this test and the church may refuse to marry you. Wow! I have no idea how they would even compute a passing score.

We are considering two churches: Saint Monica (which I blogged about two weeks ago) and Saint Timothy. Both are very beautiful and classic. Saint Monica is my current parish. And Saint Timothy was where I went to mass when I first moved to Los Angeles. It is on Pico Boulevard and Beverly Glen, very close to the apartment I stayed at on Beverly Drive.

The pictures in the post are of Saint Timothy, taken by the photographer we are considering working with for the wedding. One thing to note is that churches DO NOT allow flash photography during the ceremony. And they are typically dark inside, unlike those in the Philippines. So the photographer has to be really good at making it appear like there is a lot of light.

I met with the wedding coordinator of Saint Timothy last week. She grew up in Hong Kong! During our meeting, I was reminded of that tour guide (she looks and talks just like her)... The SHAK eat many peepoh areeeeeeehdy.

If I can't have Tom Brady...

...I can at least get married in the same church. The same church where Gisele and Tom got hitched, that is.

I have my heart pretty much set on St. Monica Church in Santa Monica as the venue for the ceremony. It's about four blocks north of where I live, so it's in the neighborhood I call home. I also really love its style -- it looks traditional, unlike most churches here which are more modern and angular a la Church of the Gesu in Ateneo. Oh! And it's across the street from this pretty park. And I read in a bunch of wedding websites that the priest is really witty, smart, and funny! Parang too good to be true!

Talked to them about the process for getting married there, expecting that they would be as strict as the churches in the Philippines. But...

1. They don't require both the bride and the groom to be Catholics. All that is required is that one of us was baptized and that we agree to raise all our future children in the Catholic faith... which is what I was planning anyway.
2. They don't have any restrictions on wearing strapless gowns.
3. They only require one written compatibility test, one priest interview, and one counseling session to be cleared for matrimony. I was expecting multiple counseling sessions over several months.

From a cost standpoint, they are also very reasonable, with a package for the church, officiant, organist, vocalist (extra if more than one), and two mass servers.

I really, really, really hope that they have availability for when we are planning to get married. Have heard that they get booked up really fast -- and September is a peak month for weddings. Marty and I will need to attend an info session next Wednesday and then meet with the priest before we are assigned a date.

Keeping my fingers... and toes... crossed.