how long is a catholic wedding?

[raelize]

my dh's family is catholic (from latin america) and my sil is getting married in a month. how long should i expect the wedding ceremony to be? it will be a full catholic ceremony. i am thinking in terms of my 4 y.o. (one of the flowergirls) and my 2 y.o. and how close should i sit to an exit?

[MamaJenese]

A wedding with a full catholic mass usually runs about an hour.

[raelize]

thanks mama! that doesn't sound too long.

[Catubodua]

an hour is about right, unless you get a priest who wants to drone on and on about what marriage is and what marriage should be. bonus points if they want to make a point about why it's special and why homosexuals shouldn't marry.... and yup, it happened to someone i know. ... but it was still only an hour & 1/2 ceremony.

[Breathless Wonder]

I agree with the others- expect about an hour. A typical mass when I used to attend church (I was raised Catholic) was about 40 - 45 minutes. Anything "special" (marriage, baptism) takes slightly longer.

[PatienceAndLove]

When I married XDH, our ceremony took place outside the Mass (as he is not Catholic), and it took an hour. Had we had a full Mass, it would have been 1.5 hrs.

Be prepared to sit up front with DD and DS, so they can see what is happening (this is REALLY important, as being able to see helps keep their attention). Have coloring books and picture books.
Sit at the end of the aisle, and be prepared to make an exit, if you need to.

[Sol_y_Paz]

Full Catholic wedding takes 1.5 hours.

[spmamma]

I was married in the Catholic faith. Our wedding lasted an hour.

[kcstar]

Between 1 and 1.5 hours. In my experience, a regular parish mass was 1 hour. A parish mass with another sacrament (baptism, reconciliation, wedding) usually went 1.5 hours. Another of these sacraments without the mass would go from about 30 minutes (mostly baptism, I think) to 1 hour (most of the others).

Bring coloring books and quiet toys. Most Catholic churches have a cry room if you need to take the 2-yr-old out.