Wedding Forums/ Weddings Zone Ireland

Hi ladies!
Firstly, congratulations on your engagement and upcomming wedding!

Modern Ireland is still a predominantly Catholic country, with the majority of Irish brides still opting for the traditional Catholic wedding ceremony. Because of this, it is still as difficult as ever for a Church of Ireland bride-to-be to find useful information on what her ceremony will entail. Most Irish wedding forums have wonderfully helpful advice in abundance, but when it comes to other religions, they're at a loss. This is why I've set up a thread here, especially for other Church of Ireland brides to gather all the information they need!

Speaking from experience, I have found it very difficult to compile the information needed to plan an enjoyable, stress-free wedding ceremony, for the bridal party and the guests! But in working closely with my vicar, I now feel (almost!) fully prepared for my wedding, and I hope to be able to help anybody here who needs a little a guidance and empathy from someone who is a fellow bride-to-be, with only a few weeks to go!

I am originally from England, so I was baptised in a Church of England church, but I guess I consider myself as Church of Ireland now, having lived here for 12 years! They are both almost exactly the same, with the same feast days and rituals. My H2b isn't religious at all, he was never baptised, never been to church other than for the big events ie; baptism, marriage or funeral. This however, i'm happy to say, was not a problem for our vicar in the slightest. If your considerable other-half is of a different religion to you, this should be declared to your vicar, but it is entirely possible for you both to have a religious ceremony. Your other-half is not required to change their religion or be baptised, if they don't want to. Being able to share a religion in marriage is a wonderful thing, but you don't have to share a religion in order to have a wonderful marriage!

So that was my introduction, I hope it rang true with some other brides-to-be! I am regularly online and contributing to the weddingzone forums, so i'm usually around if anybody has any questions for me. I'm happy to help! Over the next few days i'll be posting more details on Church of Ireland weddings, eg; order of service, appropriate music/hymns, readings and other useful information. Please feel free to add your own tips and advice below!

Chat soon Weddies!

You should do up a list of all the important things for church of ireland bride2be and post it as a sticky on the wedding forums!