THE CIVIL REGISTRAR Civil law in Ireland requires you to give not less than three months notice to the Registrar of Marriages. You can obtain a special form for this from any Marriage Registration Office. Both parties complete the form and send it to Mrs A. Fitzpatrick, Registrar of Marriages, c/o Social Welfare Office, Kinsale.
If you forget to give this notice three months in advance then you will have to go to the Circuit Family Court for an exemption.
The Registrar is located at Adelaide House, Adelaide Street, Cork.

Click Here for More info on registration Links to the solemnisation and registration (in the civil records) of a valid marriage in Ireland including: Preliminaries to a valid Marriage / Procedures For Marriage In Ireland / Re-Marriage Of Previously Married Persons and Useful Addresses & Telephone Numbers.

 

More Details about RC Marriage Requirements: www.corkandross.org

 

PRE-MARRIAGE COURSE

Each couple must do a pre-marriage course. It is recommended that you book a course at least six months before the date of the wedding. Pre-marriage courses are given in Cork by three agencies. They are;

Cork Marriage Counselling Centre, 34, Paul St., Cork.
Tel: 021-427 5678.

N.A.O.M.I.
36 Washington St., Cork
Tel: 021-427 2213.

Catholic Engaged Encounter
Tel: 021-435 7571, 021-435 3908, 021-430 4070

 

BOOKING THE CHURCH
To reserve the church for your wedding it is necessary to book your church well in advance

Usually, A five-year Diary is kept for booking weddings and bookings are on a first come first serve basis. The priest or the sacristan will write in the date, church and time of the marriage.
In order to avoid confusion this should be done personally or confirmed in writing if arranged over the phone. If the date is later changed or the wedding is cancelled you should come back and have the booking cancelled. This will leave the date free for someone else.

MARRIAGE PAPERS

You will need;

1. A certificate of Baptism recently issued (not more than six months old).

2. Evidence of Confirmation.

3. Evidence that you have completed a pre-marriage course.

4. Proof that you had not been married before in some place where you had lived for six months or more since you reached marriageable age. You will get such a letter of freedom from the priest of the parish where you lived whether in another part of Ireland or abroad.

When you have got these documents together bring them to the priest of the parish in which you now live and he will put them together as well as completing a lengthy form containing such data as the names of the Best Man and Bridesmaid, your future intended place of residence, etc. At this stage you should make a contribution to the priest. He will then forward all your documents to the church where you are to be married.

 

The Church Ceremony
This should be discussed in detail with the officiating priest. Readings at Mass or Service should always
be from the bible. Sample readings are available.

Money
If one of the parishioners is from Kinsale parish, there is no fee for the church. It is however, customary to give a voluntary offering to the priest who helps you with the marriage arrangements – deals with all the paperwork etc. Should this priest also officiate at the wedding, most couples would give an offering of €100 to cover paperwork, plus saying mass.

The Sacristan is usually given €25 for attending at rehearsals and ceremony. The Altar Servers are also given a small monitory gift. This is the total of the church expenses for a parish wedding.
If neither party is from Kinsale and the use of the Kinsale church is required for their wedding, there is a fee of €200 for the use of the church. In these situations, it is presumed the couple will invite a priest from their won parish, or a friend to officiate. The documentation required will be attended to by the priest in the home parish and forwarded to Kinsale. The priest in the home parish should be contacted several months before the wedding date.