How To Plan A Wedding At Notre Dame
Written by Kaity Fuja of OMG Photography
All photos by OMG Photography
How to Book Your Wedding Date at Notre Dame
If you know anyone who’s gotten married at the Basilica, you’ve heard of Basilica Monday. The day in March when every hopeful Notre Dame bride and groom recruited their friends and family members to repeatedly call the Basilica offices over and over until they FINALLY got through to book their wedding date. They would then have a prioritized list of dates and times for the following year that they would have to go through until they landed on an available slot and booked their wedding on the spot. It was a frenzied process and everyone who booked their date this way has a story about pushing redial over 300 times for hours on end just waiting in line until they got through. However, last year this all changed! The Basilica is officially online and so is their booking process.
Now, to book your wedding, you go to their website, and look through their calendar which includes all ceremony venues and times available for the next two years from the day you are looking. All requests must be made online.
Once you’ve booked your Basilica date and time, you will work with VenueND to lock down a reception venue. With the new buildings on the stadium, there are now even more reception spaces than before. You can look at a full list of venue spaces HERE. You will work with a VenueND rep to get your contracts signed, deposits paid, and more including your catering. There are many venues in the South Bend area you can also work with, but
Notre Dame works with 4 exclusive caterers. You will talk to your catering rep to discuss menus and more including having a tasting date which can be set starting 6 months before your wedding date. You’ll have a planning meeting with your VenueND rep 8 weeks prior to your wedding date to go over floor plans, and to update them on everything you’ve done since booking!
Who can get married at Notre Dame
To get married at Notre Dame you must fit one of the following criteria:
Current Student at Notre Dame
Alumnus/a of Notre Dame
Active parishioner at Sacred Heart Parish for at least 2 years before scheduling a wedding date.
Current full time faculty or staff of Notre Dame for at least 5 years.
Items to keep in mind while planning an ND Wedding
The Basilica offers four Saturday time slots (9AM, 11AM, 1PM, and 3PM) for wedding ceremonies throughout the year and two Friday time slots (1PM and 3PM) during the summer. Each wedding is allowed exactly TWO HOURS in the Basilica and they are very strict about this rule. Brides and their bridesmaids are allowed an additional 15 minutes in the front vestibule of the church, but otherwise guests and wedding parties are only allowed in the church from 30 minutes prior to the ceremony to 30 minutes after the ceremony.
This includes any and all family portraits you want taken after the ceremony is over. There is no wiggle room for extra time even if the ceremony goes over it’s scheduled hour — if the mass goes over by 10 minutes, that means you will only have 20 minutes to get those family photos at the alter. I’ve gotten very good at working quickly and efficiently to take these photos, but it’s crucial to be prepared before the wedding day. This is why it is REALLY important to communicate with your families when and where they need to be following the ceremony. If they are to be in a family photo, they need to be up at the front of the church as quickly as possible and they should not leave the basilica until they’ve been given the all clear. This is also why I recommend taking large family photos with all of your aunts and uncles and cousins outside on the steps of the Dome after we take a photo of all of your guests. It’s much easier to wrangle everyone when they’re all in one location!
Notre Dame Transportation
Even though Notre Dame is not a huge campus and everything is walkable, I recommend having some sort of transportation for you and your wedding party. There are a lot of reasons for this, the most obvious being the weather. South Bend can be unpredictable throughout the year. It could be snowy and icy, sunny and super hot, it could be pouring down rain, or it could be absolutely perfect… you just don’t know. Since we can’t control the weather, it’s best just to embrace it, but also be prepared. I keep 15-20 umbrellas in my car for rainy wedding days, I encourage little breaks in the heat or AC when we’re dealing with extreme temperatures and I always recommend having a shuttle or bus to take your wedding party around campus. It’s just easier and you will want things to be easy on your wedding day. With a bus, we’ll also be able to snag a photo on the opposite side of the lakes with campus in the background -- a favorite photo for a lot of couples! Finally, once we’re done taking photos of the wedding party, we can send them to eat and drink on the bus while we take some extra portraits of you and your new spouse… giving you some nice privacy and a little quiet time before we all head to party at the reception!
Notre Dame Stadium Access
A lot of Notre Dame couples really want to take some photos on the football field. The stadium holds a lot of fun memories for alums and being able to get on the field is a real treat. You must book photos of the field through VenueND. Access is $500 for 1 hour and up to 15 people on the field. This also includes taking a few photos with the ‘Play Like a Champion’ Sign. Depending on your wedding time slot, these photos will either be taken before or during your cocktail hour.
Photo of All Guests on Steps of the Dome
Nearly all of my couples opt to get a photo with all of their guests on the steps of the Dome. This photo is taken after all of the family photos are done (90 minutes after the start of the ceremony). To ensure that all of your guests know to stick around, I recommend making a note in your program AND having the priest make an announcement at the end of the ceremony. Once we’ve taken a photo of everyone, this is a good time to pare down the group into the large family photos (i.e. Everyone Related to the Bride/Groom’s Dad’s Side/etc) and ND Alumni Photo. Taking the alumni photo here is MUCH EASIER than taking it at the reception!
Notre Dame Photo Locations
Being an alum, I know how special campus is and how beautiful it can be throughout the year. When I work with my couples, I start with a pretty standard route (Grotto > God Quad) and then adjust or add in locations depending on which spots significant to the couple. Common favorites include: Lyon’s Arch, Stone Henge, TD Jesus, dorms, God/Country/ND Door, The far side of the lakes, and ND Ave). Depending on the time we have for photos and transportation available, we figure out the best spots and go from there. In addition to making sure I take photos with the significant landmarks, I also make sure to take portraits with more neutral backgrounds so that every gallery has a good mix to choose from!
FREE ND TIMELINE DOWNLOADABLES!
Kaity has been so kind as to give the Your Day by MK family FREE Notre Dame Wedding Day timelines to help guide your planning process before your coordinator steps in or to chat with other vendors.
