Marriage blessing in France?

Hi Lisa
I'm afraid I know nothing about french weddings or what the rules are but there has already been one helpful response.

You don't say where you are getting married but presumably you'll be having a civil wedding as there has to be some form of registration of the ceremony.

As I mention on the site - a blessing is not a legal ceremony and can happen anywhere. In England it can be led by any Christian and doesn't need to be a priest officiating. Why not chat to the local priest in the area where you are to be married and see what the tradition is in France.

Come back if you get stuck and we'll see what we can do for you.There are often Chaplains in holiday areas so that might be a possibility. Find out what you can and let us know where you plan to get married.
don't panic
jan x

I got married in France 2 years ago but I'm French so our circumstances were slightly different. However, when we looked into it, my husband remembers reading that you can have a blessing in France as long as you find a priest willing to do it. This is unofficial however, so you would need to get married officially in England as well I believe.

I suggest that you contact the priest in the town where you are planning to get married and see whether he is willing to carry out the ceremony for you.

We got married in the mayor's office and then had a blessing. The village priest that we went to wasn't keen on doing the ceremony for us so we went to diocese who agreed to do it. We got in touch with our priest in England who got all the paperwork together and sent it to the French diocese. We only had to meet up with the French priest once to arrange the order of service. The priest even did a little speech in English during the ceremony which was lovely.

If you were to ask an English priest to come over to France and carry out the blessing you would need to get authorisation from the French priest to 'lend' you his church.

Hope this helps.