Matrimony

FIRST THINGS FIRST- SETTING THE DATE!
Congratulations on your engagement!  Engaged couples planning to be married at St. Simon are encouraged to contact the pastor, associate pastor or deacon as soon as the couple is engaged. 

To set a date, please contact the priest or deacon at St. Simon that you are asking to marry you, via email or telephone; contact information for our parish priest/deacon can be found on our website. If you want permission to bring a priest/deacon from outside the parish, contact the pastor directly for permission and to secure the date. Definite plans for your wedding date should not be made until such contact has been made with the priest/deacon and the church secured. Please note that only the priest in the parish can set the date on the calendar for your wedding. During this initial contact the priest can set a date and schedule a time for your first meeting.

Please note when choosing a time, weddings on Saturday may not start later than 2:00 p.m. Friday evening weddings, please do not arrive prior to 3:15pm (allowing our school to dismiss)
 
MEET WITH YOUR PRESIDING PRIEST/DEACON
PRE-NUPTIAL INVESTIGATION
The Archdiocese of St. Louis requires that the assisting priest or deacon fill out the pre-nuptial investigation with the intended bridegroom and bride. The purpose of this investigation is to establish that there are no obstacles to the couple marrying according to the Catholic Church.

Preparation for marriage involves the couple taking and reviewing the FOCCUS inventory, participating in any one of several Marriage Preparation Programs, and planning the wedding ceremony with the presiding priest/deacon.
 
RESERVING YOUR MUSICIAN
Music is an important part of your liturgy and you may want to contact your pianist/organist as soon as you secure the date of your wedding so they may also get it on their calendar. Michelle Shaver-Krus is our Director of Liturgy and Music. She is available to provide the music at most weddings or can give you a list of possible musicians, if she is unavailable, and cantors, instrumentalist, etc. You may also choose to bring in a separate, qualified musician, but still need to contact our Director of Music to do so. You may contact Michelle by email at [email protected] or leave a message at 314-606-4595.

Prior to your wedding your musician will meet with you to help plan your wedding liturgy music and can provide samples of music for you to choose.
 
 
WEDDING FEES
Church fee: $200.00 for parishioners
                      $300.00 for non-parishioners.
                      $200.00 Michelle Shaver-Krus fee if playing
         (This does not include the musicians or vocalists.)
Any offering or gift you may choose to make to the individual priest or deacon who prepared and witnessed your marriage is at your own discretion.
 
BAPTISMAL CERTIFICATE
A baptismal certificate with all sacramental notations, issued within six months of your wedding, should be obtained from the church where you were baptized by each intended spouse, unless you were baptized here at St. Simon the Apostle. This certificate will not be returned.
 
YOUR WEDDING DAY!
Photography/Videography- photos and video may unobtrusively be taken during the ceremony but should not distract from the ceremony. No one is allowed in the sanctuary (anything past the steps on the way to the altar). All photographers should see the wedding coordinator before the ceremony begins. The photographer has 45 mins after the ceremony ends and church clears to take photos. No moving of furnishing or microphone in church. 
Decorating church dos and don’ts:
Flowers and decorations are appropriate for a wedding, though not essential.
Pews: Do not to use any tape, adhesive, thumb tacks or pins on the furniture in the church, including the pews, to attach any bows or flowers. Please talk to our wedding coordinator or parish office for ideas to attach to pews. For your information, our center aisle is 75 feet long and there are 16 pews each side of the center aisle, with seven in front of the cross-aisle and nine to the rear of it.
Aisle runner: NOT allowed.
Flowers: Flower girls are only allowed to “throw” silk petals, not real, when walking down the aisle.
Candles: There are sufficient candles in the sanctuary for the liturgy. No additional candles are allowed in the aisle or elsewhere. Please talk to your presider concerning the use of a unity candle.
Church seating: 750 
Rice/Confetti & other substitutes:
The throwing of rice or confetti and the like is not permitted inside or outside St. Simon the Apostle church. Bells, cowbells, horns, noise makers, bubbles, etc. are allowed outside of the church building. Re: helium balloons, nothing should be taped the parish building or grounds.
 
Food info/Rooms available:
The bride and women in the bridal party may meet up and wait in our Youth Ministry room in the lower church hall area. There are restrooms available right outside this door. There is an elevator and stairs to get to the church lobby when the service is about to start.
The groom and men in the party can gather in the Simon Room, located on the level of the church, right off the church lobby. Two restrooms are located off the lobby.
Please note no drinking of alcohol is allowed anywhere inside the building or on the premise before a wedding or wedding rehearsal. Smoking is allowed outside only.  You are allowed to bring minimal food & nonalcoholic drink as you wait/ get ready as long as you fully remove it after.