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Hi there,

I am an Australian and got married to my Austrian husband in 2010, here in Austria.

Like most European countries, they do two marriage ceremonies - one at the "Standesamt" or registry office, and one in a church. If you are planning a Catholic service then the Catholic church requires both people to be registered Catholics (you need to provide a copy of your baptism certificate) and you must also partake in a pre-wedding seminar, organised by the Catholic church. You can do this one night a week for 6 weeks, or over one weekend, or in other ways - they have a lot of different schedules available. It sounded a bit silly but we actually enjoyed the exercises (you discovered things about your partner that you never knew) and getting to know the other couples there.

Most people do these two ceremonies on the same day - the registry office in the morning, and then the church in the afternoon. Most of the guests only go to the church. But of course you can do it however you wish - we know lots of people who get married officially and then 2 years later (when they have the money) they do the church wedding and big party.

The party after the church is important - there are lots of traditions and fun and games. For example, the bride is usually "stolen" from the party and taken to a local pub by some of the wedding guests, who drink as much as they can until the father-of-the-bride arrives and pays their bill. Wedding parties are a lot more fun here than anywhere else I have been. Enjoy it!

That's about all the information I can give you - good luck

Bec

I'm an Australian that married in Austria as well but with a totally different experience with the Catholic church..

I am not Catholic, or baptised for that matter and was also pregnant at the time (far out that sounds bad in the same sentence) but our priest was not fussed at all and I think the only thing I had to verbally agree to was to baptise my children.

We did not need to take part in any sort of seminar.  Maybe it made a difference as we already had been married in Australia (registry office).

Off topic -- but he is the most wonderful priest by the way who has gone on to baptise both our children. 

** reading this back I can see how the German language totally messes with my written English!

for your contribution both of you!

Harmonie.