Getting married on a cruise

Another oft-requested venue is getting married on a cruise. Why anyone would want to do so is beyond us……having your wedding party and family along on your honeymoon does not sound like a great way to start off married life.

Of course, with many couples cohabiting nowadays, the honeymoon is not what it used to be….but we assume as practicing Catholics you are living a chaste life up until the marriage.

However, if you really want to get married on a cruise, then you need to make some serious plans. In the first place, as mentioned above, you cannot get married on the ship, because it is not consecrated ground, as we have pointed out in our page on Destination Weddings.

You would need to arrange for a church at a port along the way and that is not an easy thing. It’s hard enough planning a wedding in your own home town much less some city a few hundred—or thousand–miles away.

And, if for some reason, there is a last-minute change in the ships’ itinerary you could end up missing your own wedding!

An alternative:  Get married in your home parish or near the departure point of the cruise