Catholic Wedding
...by a woman who had one...
I do dislike to be pedantic, or a killjoy, or mean, but the information in the write-up above does not tally with my experience, or indeed my education on the subject.
The catholic wedding ceremony takes something hovering around an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes. Our wedding was a little closer to an hour and fifteen minutes, largely because we chose to do the wedding both in Spanish and in English, and chose a longer first reading, and to give flowers to Our Lady. Also, the priest who assisted at our wedding thought it a very good joke to tell everyone assembled that I'd gone and lost the marriage license the night before the wedding, and THEN to deliver a very succinct and moving homily.
The Catholic Wedding does indeed consist of the Liturgy of the Word, The Blessing of the Marriage, The Marriage Ceremony, and The Liturgy of the Eucharist. The married couple has ten places to make choices about which particular words get spoken. Usually, the priest assisting at the wedding will suggest choices that may be better, depending upon his knowledge of the couple. After the Wedding Ceremony, but before the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the couple may give flowers to The Blessed Virgin. This takes a total of three minutes, including the walk to the Lady Altar and back. At no time is anyone told that "shorter is shameful."
If two unconfirmed Catholics wish to get married in the church, then the procedure is to get the two of them confirmed before the wedding. The post-confirmation party can serve as an engagement party. A couple in my Pre-Cana group did this.
There is a myth that Catholics who marry non-Catholics are thought unworthy of full honors, and have to marry in the Rectory, and are otherwise punished. This is simply not the truth. The non-Catholic partner is not given Eucharist. This is the only difference in the ceremony. Sometimes, the priest assiting at the wedding will ask if the non-Catholic partner wishes to convert. The only real problem comes when someone who is divorced wishes to marry in the church. This the church will not do.
Please note, our wedding started at two-ish. It was a full ceremony. We walked a mile and a quarter from the church to the reception. We made it by 3:30, and I was in heels. So, to sum up: the wedding takes the same amount of time as regular mass, problems with non-confirmed status and non-catholicism are easily solved and usually not problems, and this image of the Catholic Church as some kind of living relic of the Middle Ages is just baffling.