A crash course on inter-faith based wedding ceremonies

Your wedding ceremony can be civil or religious, depending on your personal preference. If you are planning to have a religious ceremon y and both you and your future husband/wife shares the same faith, it would be easy to decide on how the ceremony would take place. But if the two of you practices a different faith, you may find it a little harder to plan for the ceremony. Each religion is different in their rules and ways of performing a wedding ceremony.

When choosing a location on where your religious wedding ceremony will take place, your options are not just limited to your place of worship. Wedding ceremonies can also be held at the park, the beach, or even in the backyard. Jewish wedding ceremonies may be held at the same location where the reception takes place. Protestants and Catholics sometimes do not allow a religious ceremony unless it is held inside the church. You may need to contact the staff that overseas the event and find out what the requirements and regulations are.

With a religious wedding ceremony, stipulations are different among Protestants, Catholic, and Jewish religions. The following gives you an overview of what the general requirements are:

Protestant marriage: You are required to have one or several conferences and meetings with the minister. It is also common to have pre-marital counseling and take compatibility quizzes. Weddings are usually held on days other than a Sunday.

Roman Catholic weddings: You are required to talk with your priest about marriage issues, compatibility tests, and workshops with other couples that are soon to be married. This is what they call pre-Cana or pre-marriage counseling.

For Jewish ceremonies, the Orthodox has a few strict requirements that must be followed. Wedding ceremonies are not to be held on Sabbath day or any day that is considered to be holy. The ceremonies are usually performed in Aramaic or Hebrew language while reform ceremonies are performed in both English and Hebrew. Men should wear Yarmulkes (head coverings). The Conservative branches of Judaism as well as the Orthodox usually do not conduct interfaith ceremonies. However, some reform rabbis do perform ceremonies of couples with different faiths.