Hello fellow SSJ brides!
Just wanted to let everyone know that SSJ still allows personal messages to each other depending on the priest officiating the ceremony. In our case, we had Fr. Alex, their parish priest officiate our wedding and I inquired about doing the personal vows during our canonical interview with him and he said that it is fine.
In case you are interested in doing this, make sure to request for Fr. Alex to officiate the ceremony nalang.
Be warned though, that they only assign the officiating priests on the week of the wedding itself unless you're bringing your own priest. During the week of our wedding, my coord called the SSJ parish office to confirm kung si Fr. Alex nga and they said na he had an appointment that day so our wedding will be assigned to another priest.
Upon hearing this, syempre nagalit yung coord ko and said na we thought this has been set, etc. The only saving grace was that we were personally endorsed by a family friend that happens to be a big patron of the church, as in, SSJ holds Sunday mass service in their house every Sunday because the grandma can't walk and go to church anymore. So when they checked our files, the lady from the parish office asked my coord: "Ay, ito po ba yung kay Mrs. Pxxxx? Sige po, okay na po, si Fr. Alex na. Ipapa-cancel nalang daw po nya appointment nya that day".
Moral of the story is either bring your own officiating priest or really insist na si Fr. Alex yung mag-officiate ng wedding.
I'm also a big believer of the traditional Catholic vows, and I don't think they should be replaced in any way, shape or form. I mean, that's the whole point of getting married in Church diba? As for me, I didn't really consider our "personal vows" as vows. We wanted to say our personal messages to each other because it makes the entire ceremony more personal and intimate, and it's not everyday we get to recite heartfelt and meaningful things to our spouses so it's only very fitting to say these messages to each other in front of all our loved ones.
I also wanted to add na we said our personal messages to each other right after reciting our vows. After reciting our vows, Fr. Alex turned to us and asked : "Do you have any messages for each other that you would like to share with everyone?"
In case any of you would like to see our SDE with snippets of our messages, just check out this link:
https://vimeo.com/188970246I hope this helps ladies!
