---

GETTING STARTED IN YOUR MARRIAGE PREPARATION

Bride or Groom must schedule an appointment to go over the Marriage Requirements. It could be a phone conference or in person. However well-intentioned this may be, parents or wedding planners of the bride & groom may not arrange appointments or make changes for them.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Ministers and staff members who will be involved with your preparation and the wedding itself will be the following:

• Suevan Resendiz: You will meet with the Suevan to go over our church guidelines and to receive a wedding packet which will help you in planning your wedding ceremony. She will be your point of contact through most of the preparation process.
• Deacon: For a wedding in the context of a Liturgy of the Word (without the Liturgy of the Eucharist) you may ask a deacon from your parish to preside or you may ask a deacon from Emmaus to preside.
• Priest: If you wish to have a wedding in the context of a mass, you are required to ask a priest from your parish to preside. If you are a member of this parish, you may request a priest from Emmaus to preside. Please keep in mind that they have limited availability on wedding dates so please have options for at least several dates in mind when you contact them.
• Contact Person for Music: All music must be coordinated through and under the direction of Heather Smith. You should contact her once you receive your confirmation letter.
• Wedding Coordinators: Our parish wedding coordinators will contact you to coordinate both the rehearsal and the wedding. They do not assist in planning the wedding.

---

Items Required BEFORE Your Wedding Can Be Scheduled

Preparation at Emmaus:

• The bride & groom must meet with Suevan to review guidelines

• Checklist for wedding deposit

• Guidelines agreement sheet

• A recently dated copy of your Baptismal Certificate with Sacramental notations

• Birth Certificates

• A written agreement from the officiating priest or deacon.

• Affidavits of Free Status

• Dispensation remitted to Diocese of Austin, if necessary

• Annulment papers of all previous marriages, if required

• A signed delegation form if a guest priest or deacon is presiding

• Wedding fee

• Pre-nuptial questionnaire – to be completed with presider

• Diocesan Marriage Classes/Retreat

Preparation at another Church or Non-Registered Members That Live Outside Emmaus Bounderies:

• The bride & groom must meet with Suevan Resendiz to review guidelines

• Completed Wedding Preparation Form

• Checklist for wedding deposit

• Guidelines agreement sheet

• Presider's written agreement

• Wedding fee

• A signed delegation form if a guest priest or deacon is presiding

Once all required items are received, you may request your rehearsal and wedding dates and times. If the dates and times are available, you will receive a confirmation from the parish office. If the dates and times are not available, you will be contacted so that an alternate date and/or time may be reserved.

Please note: Do not make reservations for receptions or any other events until you have received a confirmation letter. Until you receive this letter, we cannot guarantee your wedding date. If you make reservations before receiving this letter and we find that we cannot reserve your requested date, Emmaus will not be responsible for solving resultant problems and issues that this may cause for you.

Baptismal Records

• Baptized Catholic(s): Contact the parish of your baptism and ask for a recently dated copy of your baptismal certificate with notations. If there are no notations, we will need a certificate of First Eucharist or Confirmation from the church in which it was received.
• Baptized Non-Catholic: Please provide a copy of your baptismal certificate from your church. If one is not available, you may ask your pastor or your parents to provide a dated letter stating when and where you were baptized.

Dispensation
To be married in the Catholic Church, either the bride or groom must be a baptized Catholic. For couples in which one is not Catholic, a dispensation from the Diocese of Austin will be required. This is dispensation or permission from the bishop for the Catholic to marry a non-Catholic. The Catholic member of the couple is to agree by signature that he/she intends to continue practicing the Catholic faith and, also, intends to have the couple’s children both baptized and raised Catholic.

Annulments: Have Either of You Been Married Before?
If either party, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, has been in a previous marriage (civil, Catholic, Protestant) that ended in divorce, this must be brought to the attention of Suevan Resendiz, the deacon or the priest immediately to determine, not if an annulment is needed, but, what sort of an annulment is needed. Failure to do so may result in cancellation of your wedding. If necessary, an annulment by the Catholic Church must be obtained in order to be married in the Catholic Church. This slows down the marriage preparation process since we cannot schedule a wedding or proceed with the marriage preparation until any needed annulments have been received.

---

Presider

Please remember that if you are arranging for a wedding within the context of a Liturgy of the Word (without the Liturgy of the Eucharist), you may invite a priest or deacon from your parish to preside or you may ask a deacon from Emmaus to preside.

• Contact the priest or deacon whom you wish to preside at your wedding at Emmaus parish. You should check on possible wedding dates at Emmaus before contacting him.

• Secure his agreement to preside on requested date and time.

Ask Suevan Resendiz to send him a delegation form. The priest or deacon who will be presiding must sign the delegation form and return it to Emmaus. Our pastor must also sign it before we can schedule your wedding. Guest priests and deacons must be delegated with the authority to preside.

• If the priest or deacon is from outside the Diocese of Austin, his bishop or religious superior must complete a testimonial of suitability. Ask Suevan Resendiz to mail the testimonial.

• Please keep in mind that the priest/deacon presiding at your wedding is responsible for your marriage preparation.

• If you wish to have a wedding in the context of a mass, you are welcome to invite a priest from your parish to preside. Otherwise, a priest or deacon of Emmaus will preside.

---

Fees and Stipends

Marriage Retreat - Contact your local diocese for registration and fees.

Included in the above fees:

• Building usage:
  • 1 hour pre wedding meeting with Wedding Coordinator
  • 1 hour scheduled rehearsal
  • 1 ½ hour before wedding ceremony
  • 1 hour wedding ceremony
  • 20 minutes photography after the ceremony
• Wedding Coordinators (Present at rehearsal and wedding)
• Utilities and custodial services

Live-Stream at Emmaus

• Live-streaming is available at Emmaus for an additional fee.
• Let the wedding administrator know if you are interested in live-streaming your wedding.

The stipend for the priest or deacon is not included in the above cost, it is a free will offering.
It is customary to give a stipend to the priest or deacon who presides at your wedding. Please keep in mind that he is pivotal in making your wedding the day of beauty and blessing that it is meant to be. This requires of him a significant amount of work and effort apart from his other duties. Altar servers from Emmaus parish who are asked to serve at your wedding should receive a stipend as well.

A parishioner of Emmaus Parish is defined as one who has been registered for a minimum of two years before contacting the parish about setting a wedding date and has been actively contributing to the Parish. Participants in RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) at Emmaus are considered to be parishioners from the beginning of that process.

If the wedding needs to be cancelled for any reason, all but the deposit, marriage file and electronic processing fee will be refunded.

---

Times, Dates and Venue

Weddings may not be scheduled on Sundays, during Lent or Advent. NO EXCEPTIONS. Lent is a season of reconciliation and reflection; thus, festive celebrations are not consistent with the spirit of the season. Please consult with the parish office on what is available before deciding on your wedding date.

Also, if a holy day of obligation falls on a Saturday, there will be no weddings scheduled on that day.

Emmaus

• Weddings at Emmaus may be scheduled at 10:00 AM, 2:00 PM or 7:00 PM.
• Friday - Weddings are scheduled only at 4:00 PM. NO EXCEPTIONS.
• The Wedding Party must arrive 30 minutes before the scheduled times.

• 10:00 AM weddings must be cleared out completely by 11:30 AM
• 2:00 PM weddings must be cleared out completely by 3:30 PM
• 7:00 PM weddings must be cleared out completely by 8:30 PM

• Rehearsals are scheduled in the afternoon or early evening on the Friday prior to the wedding at 6:00 PM
• For Friday weddings, rehearsals are scheduled in the afternoon on Thursday prior to the wedding at 6:00 PM.
• Rehearsals are one hour in length.
• The wedding party may consist of no more than 8 couples in addition to the bride and groom.

Queen of Angels Chapel

Due to the size of the chapel, there may be no more than 150 in attendance including the wedding party. NO EXCEPTIONS

• Weddings at Queen of Angels may be scheduled at 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM or 4:00 PM.
• Friday, weddings are scheduled only at 4:00 PM. NO EXCEPTIONS
• The wedding party must arrive 30 minutes before the scheduled times.
• Rehearsals may be scheduled on the Friday before the wedding no later than 4:00 PM
• For Friday weddings, rehearsals are scheduled in the afternoon on Thursday prior to the wedding at 4:00 PM.
• The wedding party may consist of no more than 4 couples in addition to the bride and groom.
• Only one wedding will be scheduled on any given Saturday.

---

ITEMS REQUIRED BEFORE THE WEDDING

Marriage Preparation Programs
Both members of the couple should read these guidelines thoroughly and discuss them. Please make sure that you discuss issues such as permanence of marriage, fidelity, children as well as your values and goals.

Couples that will be married at Emmaus or Queen of Angels Chapel must complete a marriage preparation program which includes standard marriage preparation instruction, a natural family planning class, FOCCUS or Prepare Enrich marriage inventory. Please contact your Diocese to register for a weekend pre-marital retreat and fees.

It is strongly recommended that arrangements are made for these programs immediately after your date has been confirmed. At the very least, they should be completed no less than three months prior to the wedding.

Marriage License
The couple is responsible for obtaining a marriage license from a Texas county courthouse. You may obtain a license between 89 days and 72 hours prior to the wedding. Please note that the only way to obtain a license after the 72 hour limit has passed is by obtaining a judge’s permission and this is very difficult to obtain. Do not procrastinate! We ask that you deliver the license to the office once it is obtained so it is on file for your wedding day one month prior to your wedding date.

---

PLANNING YOUR CEREMONY

Dress Code
Please keep in mind the virtue of modesty when choosing your dress and the dresses of your bridesmaids, attendants, those in the procession, and lectors. You will be worshipping in a sacred place, therefore strapless, spaghetti straps, low-cut, and bare back dresses are inappropriate and NOT ALLOWED for this occasion. If you come dressed inappropriately, you will be required to wear a shawl from the church. You may bring your own shawl or jacket. Dresses must also be at least knee length.

Dresses with bare midriffs, short dresses/skirts, high slits, skin-tight outfits, plunging necklines, or backless gowns are not dignified or appropriate for the wedding rehearsal, Marriage Rites or Mass.


Liturgy
At your initial meeting, you will receive the booklet Together for Life which is a guidebook for planning your wedding liturgy. You will need to review this and fill out the form in the back of the book before meeting with the priest or deacon presiding at your wedding or with the wedding coordinators in the weeks prior to your wedding. They will review that with you at that time. All couples who are working with priests or deacons from Emmaus must meet with him within three weeks prior to their wedding in order to review the liturgy.

Wedding Music
All wedding music at Emmaus, both at the main church and at the chapel, is under the direction of Heather Smith. She must be contacted once your wedding is scheduled at [email protected]

Music fee is NOT included in the fee above. It is very important to make this contact immediately after your wedding date is confirmed so that Mrs. Smith will have your wedding date on her schedule and so that she can guide you in planning your wedding music. All music for weddings in the context of Mass or Liturgy of the Word must be sacred music or approved classical music. Recorded & iPhone music is not permitted.

If you would like outside cantors and/or other instrumentalists, they must be arranged by Mrs. Smith. If you have particular musicians in mind, please give her their contact information and she will contact them. Do not contact them yourself. No musician or cantor may play or sing at Emmaus or at Queen of Angels Chapel without Mrs. Smith’s permission. In addition, all must have significant experience in liturgical music.

Note: Weddings scheduled at Queen of Angels Chapel late on Saturday afternoons will carry a larger basic musician fee. This is because of the need to hire an additional keyboardist.

Program
If you are having a program printed for your wedding, please have the Order of the Liturgy approved by Mrs. Smith and Wedding Administrator.

Flowers
Flowers are the responsibility of the bride and groom. Flowers may only be attached to the pews with ribbon, string or plastic clips that fit over the back of the pew. No flower arrangement may be hung anywhere except as noted on the pews. The existing flowers in the church urns may NOT be moved or altered in any way.

Flowers may be delivered one and a half hours prior to the ceremony and MUST be removed after the ceremony. Please assign someone to place the arrangements designated by the wedding coordinators and remove after the ceremony. Groomsmen boutonnieres and Bridesmaids bouquets are not responsibility of the wedding coordinators.

Any arrangements left after the ceremony will be thrown away. Bride, Groom and Florist will receive a Florist Contract for them to read, sign and return both to the Wedding Coordinator and the Wedding Administrator one month prior to the wedding.

Professional Wedding Planners
If you hire a professional wedding planner please make sure the planner understands that he/she has no role in the rehearsal or the actual wedding. These are under the guidance of the priest or deacon presiding and the Emmaus Wedding Coordinator Ministry. The planner need not be present at the rehearsal and may sit with the congregation during the wedding if they like.

Photography and Videography
Photographs may be taken in the church before the ceremony and MUST BE finished at least 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the ceremony. You have 20 minutes for photographs to be taken in the Church after the end of the ceremony; however, because there may be additional weddings and other services scheduled in the church, the church must be cleared 30 minutes after the wedding. The wedding party, guests and photographer must be out of the church by 3:30 PM if your scheduled time is at 2:00 PM.
Bride, Groom and Photographers and Videographers will receive a contract for them to read, sign and return both to the Wedding Coordinator and the Wedding Administrator one month prior to the wedding.

---

REMINDERS

• The Church is the House of God. Therefore, everyone is asked to demonstrate respect for where they are. Please ask parents of young children to monitor them closely and to keep them seated.

• Attire. Because weddings take place in the church we require that brides and their attendants dress accordingly and modestly. Sleeveless and strapless dresses are allowed with shawls or a light jacket; however, low cut necklines, short lengths (anything above the fingertips), tight fitting, bare midriffs, high slits, or backless gowns ARE NOT allowed. This is not appropriate for the presence of Christ or a sacred celebration. Provide these requirements to your wedding party.

• Alcohol is not permitted. Our policy at both Emmaus and Queen of Angels is if any member of the wedding party consumes alcohol prior to the wedding, they will not be able to participate in the wedding. For the bride and groom, consumption of alcohol prior to the wedding liturgy may be cause for cancelling the wedding. Bride & groom must be in full consent of their vows.

• Children of members of the wedding party: Members of the wedding party must make arrangements with other family members or friends to take care of their children. Our parish wedding coordinators cannot do this for you.

• Children’s safety issues: For the sake of the security and safety of children they are never to be apart from direct adult supervision while on church property. This means that children may not wander the parish property unattended. Also, children who need to leave the pews during the liturgy to go to the bathroom must be accompanied by an adult. Please include that as a notation in your program.

• Rehearsals must begin on time because there are often other events in the church after the scheduled end of the rehearsal time. Please make sure that all members of the wedding party arrive thirty minutes prior to the scheduled rehearsal time.

• The rehearsal may be conducted by the priest or deacon presiding, by the parish wedding coordinators or by a combination of the two. The priest or deacon presiding will let you know how that will work.

• All who are in the wedding are required to be at the rehearsal. This includes the best man and the maid/matron of honor, all groomsmen and bridesmaids, lectors, ring bearers, flower girls, Eucharistic ministers, padrinos, parents of the bride and groom and ushers. If members of the wedding party are not at the rehearsal, this can lead to mistakes being made at the actual wedding. Our goal is to assure that the bride and groom feel confident about the liturgy when they leave the rehearsal. This requires the presence of everyone who will have a part in the wedding liturgy.

• Rehearsals will be on Fridays, therefore timing your arrival is crucial.

• The bride’s room is available 1½ hours before the wedding and it must be cleared out within 20 minutes at the conclusion of the ceremony. We recommend that someone is designated to be responsible for this. On Saturday afternoons, the bride’s room becomes the confessional at 4:00 p.m. at Emmaus.

• There is to be no food or drink, tobacco or gum (except water) anywhere in the church!

• Ring bearers and flower girls: Long experience has taught us that ring bearers and flower girls must be no younger than six years of age. NO EXCEPTIONS. Flower girls may not throw petals down the aisle. Wagons are not allowed in the aisle for the procession or recession of the ceremony, for flower girls and ring bearers. They may carry a basket of flowers or a bouquet.

• Items not permitted inside or outside Church grounds: rice, birdseed, flower petals, aisle runners, unity candles, bubbles, confetti, butterflies, sparklers or doves. Only service animals are allowed on campus.

• Photographs during the liturgy: We gather for weddings in the context of sacred ceremony. For that reason only the professional photographer functioning under strict guidelines is permitted to take photographs during the wedding liturgy. Please inform family members and friends of this restriction prior to the wedding. It is also a good idea to include this restriction as a notation in your program.

• Church Circle Drive: Limousines and all party buses must park outside the circle drive.

• Special Traditions: If you would like to incorporate special traditions to your ceremony the wedding coordinators and wedding administrator should be notified before your wedding is scheduled and approved by the Pastor.

PLEASE PROVIDE THESE REMINDERS TO YOUR WEDDING PARTY.

Couples must sign a form attesting that they understand and agree to these Emmaus Parish Wedding Requirements upon their initial visit with Suevan Resendiz.