PROVIDENCE – Many pastors and chaplains of Catholic colleges have discovered the importance of adding a part-time wedding consultant to their staff to help couples planning to marry with the myriad of paperwork they must complete and the countless other details that must be addressed before their wedding day.
At Providence College, Patricia Campellone has ministered for seven years as a wedding consultant in the Office of the College Chaplain. She helps to plan about three dozen weddings a year for College students, alumni, faculty and staff planning to wed in St. Dominic’s Chapel.
Campellone is also the wedding consultant at her parish, St. Jude Church in Lincoln.
“I am the keeper of the paperwork,” she said, noting that while she helps with most details, it’s the couple’s responsibility to find a priest to perform the ceremony. Most students ask a Dominican friar from the college, while others invite a family relative or a parish priest to perform the ceremony.
Once the date is set, and the priest has been selected, Campellone sends a letter of confirmation to the officiating cleric, which must be signed and returned to her office.
A letter of delegation is then sent from Dominican Father Thomas Blau, the College Chaplain, informing the officiating priest about his responsibilities in preparing the couple and telling him about the chapel.
All necessary paperwork, including a letter from the bride’s parish priest, granting permission for the bride to be married outside her parish church, must then be submitted to Campellone.
The officiating priest must also submit a pre-marriage investigation form, and six weeks prior to the day of the wedding, must certify that the couple has completed marriage preparation instruction. Recent copies of sacramental certificates must also be submitted for both the bride and groom at this time.
“I explain the details of the ceremony and help the couple to select the readings,” she noted. Music for the weddings in St. Dominic Chapel is arranged by Sherry Humes-Dane, the College’s Director of Liturgical Music, who consults with the couple during the course of several months. Before the music is chosen, a cantor is selected to sing at the wedding. As the wedding date approaches, the couple meets with Dane and the cantor to hear several selections and to finalize plans for the special day.
No outside musicians or cantors are allowed to perform at weddings held in the chapel.
“The music is absolutely beautiful,” Campellone observed. “It’s really what makes the ceremony.”
Campellone said that her role is to oversee the details, such as placing flower arrangements, arranging the wedding rehearsal, instructing ushers how to seat guests, and familiarizing visiting priests with the College’s beautiful chapel. Campellone also helps
the groom and his groomsmen with their boutonnieres.
“I also make sure that the sacristy is prepared for the wedding and serve as sacristan for the wedding ceremony, and often serve as the eucharistic minister,” she added.
Many couples also practice lighting the unity candle, which is not part of the actual liturgical celebration, but is a Christian tradition that many newlyweds maintain by including it in their wedding ceremony.
“I have to clarify that everything is being done or has been done,” she added.
Once the special day arrives, Campellone said it’s her job to ensure that the wedding schedule is followed, especially if there are three ceremonies being conducted in the chapel in one day.
“Usually there are back to back ceremonies which makes it very tight and necessary to make sure things run as scheduled,” the wedding expert noted.
“I have to make sure that the photographer is there when the bride steps out of the limousine,” she emphasized. “It’s about orchestrating the timing to ensure that the ceremony goes off on schedule.
“I coordinate all the movements,” she continued. “I do the back of the church, and the priest does the front.”
Campellone said that once a couple arrives at the chapel, “nothing more can be done.
“I tell them to relax, to be calm, and to just enjoy the ceremony and to appreciate the sacrament.”
