Catholic Weddings in Goa – An insider view
Beach, Beautiful gowns, Sun and Fun – is the top of mind recall of anyone thinking of a wedding in Goa.
However, there is more to it than just that. A goan catholic wedding is more a multitude of events, time with family, friends, food and merriment. To fully understand the various events and the rituals and their significance, you need to attend and live a goan catholic wedding.
Goa is slowly becoming a wedding location for destination weddings with a lot of celebrity weddings happening at beach resorts in Goa.
A lot of decision planning goes into orchestrating the entire event prior to the wedding day – the selection of the wedding gowns, choosing your wedding photographer, designing the wedding cards, wedding halls, the wedding planners, the wedding decorators, the goan wedding jewellery, the wedding caterer. The list just goes on.
We have documented the key events of a catholic wedding as well as some of the key points to consider while planning your wedding day.
The goan wedding themes are usually colour coordinated to a colour and the attires, details and wedding decorations are planned accordingly.
1. Roce
This is a function which has some parallels to the haldi ceremony and is carried out on the eve of the wedding. The bride and groom are covered with coconut milk accompanied with the singing of Konkani songs. If you have some nutty siblings and friends around, then the coconut milk can also be mixed with raw eggs, alcohol, even chilli powder.
2. Blessing
Individual pics of the bride and groom make for great page spreads in the album. The ability to creatively direct the bride and groom and the bridesmaid and best men can give you amazingly creative pictures. What should not be forgotten is to include the parents and close family members within the pictures and the blessing rituals.
As a couple planning for your wedding, ensure that the makeup artist arrives sufficiently in time so that the photographer has enough time after you get ready to capture those wow images. Communicate these timelines with both your photographer and makeup artist. Also, in certain cases, the photographer may need to cover the location of the bride and groom. Please discuss the proximity of the two houses with him and the time needed to commute between the two locations.
3. Nuptials
The nuptials or mass is an elaborate religious affair at the church/chapel. The time inside the church is solemn, and candid wedding photographers need to be cognizant of the place and decorum. As a wedding couple, please discuss with the priest prior on any specific rules that might be present in your church and communicate this clearly to your photographer. This is very important and smoothens out the entire nuptials coverage.
The vows and exchange of the rings is an important part of the wedding mass. Even though moving around the church during the mass may be limited, getting emotive pictures of the bride, groom, family and friends is what every candid photographer focuses on.
The mass usually lasts for 1 to 1.5 hours followed by everyone present wishing the bride and groom.
As a wedding couple ensure that you reach the chapel/church on time as there may be subsequent events planned in the church after the wedding mass and a delay in starting your event on time may only lead to the priest hurrying through the entire proceedings. That is not something you would want to occur for your wedding.
4. Post wedding shoot
For those inclined to get a nice shoot with the entire wedding entourage, there may a small interval of time between the mass and the reception.
Please discuss with your wedding photographer on the possible locations for such a shoot, be it a beach, countryside, lake shore etc. Your wedding photographer will be able to guide you based on the overall mood of the pictures that you all will be trying to achieve.
The time allocated for the shoot is also critical as you would not want to be late for the litany at home as well as the wedding reception.
5. Wedding Reception start
“Selecting a master of ceremonies” for your wedding reception is one of the most important aspects of your wedding. A good MC can light up the mood of the wedding manifold. So be sure that you have seen the MC doing his thing at weddings. Also meet and communicate to the MC in advance on the tone of wedding – be it a little serious, light hearted or totally boisterous. It is important that the overall flow is planned by him accordingly.
“Selecting a wedding venue” – As a wedding couple you may have already zeroed in your wedding venue based on the weddings that you have already attended.
However, a few points to keep in mind when considering a wedding are Location – proximity to yourselves and guests, Venue – depending on the month of the year whether it is open area/covered venue, decorations – the type of decorations that can be done would differ from a beach wedding to a normal party hall. Please consider visiting the venue and having a look at it when an actual wedding is happening before booking the location.
The MC starts the reception by welcoming the bridal party where the couple is showered with confetti by the guests. This is followed by the cutting of the cake, the toast and the wedding march. The toast is raised by someone close to the couple and traditionally offers a few words of advice to the couple.
6. First Dance
The couple take their first dance as couple on the dance floor with the guests surrounding the couple. The guests then join the dance floor from the next song. The wedding song chosen for the first dance is very personal to the couple.
7. Second set of dances and Dinner
The first session of dancing is followed by a session of drinks and snacks followed by further session of dances. Finally, the buffet is opened by the couple and then the guests.
Given the fact that weddings start by around 7 p.m., hence please keep in mind any sound restrictions as the band would have to stop performing based on this. In case of any permissions required, please check with the wedding venue and get the permissions arranged.
There are a lot of other blogs and checklists that you should read up to ensure a comprehensive plan
