A - Scheduling a church for my wedding

When you contact a parish ~ in person or by phone ~ seeking to set a date for your wedding or have your civil marriage validated, the parish secretary will likely record information for the Pastor and assure you that the Pastor or someone on the church staff will get back to you as soon as possible.  Why? A request for marriage requires a conversation with someone qualified to make important judgments about your "freedom/readiness to be married in the Catholic Church" before it is appropriate to reserve the church for a wedding.  At the same time, the Pastor may allow the parish secretary to check the church calendar to see what dates are available for celebrating a marriage.   This is a practical way to be "user friendly" to couples seeking to marry while maintaining an appropriate pastoral strategy for providing quality marriage preparation.   If the church is already booked for a wedding or some other event, the couple can re-think their date or look for another church for their wedding.  If the church is available, the parish secretary can "pencil in" the wedding for a specific date and explain that: "We will hold this date for you until you can meet with the Pastor or Staff Person and get confirmation that the church can be reserved for your wedding."