Roman Catholic Wedding, or Not?
I have a couple of questions for my Roman Catholic friends regarding a wedding I attended last week. The circumstances were a bit strange, and I'm curious how the RC church would view this.
Background: the bride is Catholic, the groom Protestant (Presbyterian I think, but not entirely sure). They are both in the military - he just got back from a tour with the Marines in Afghanistan, and she is a corpsman in the Navy. Before he shipped out last year they had a civil wedding ceremnony, very quiet, the idea being that in case anything happened to him while in Afghanistan she would be able to receive benefits as a widow. So now a year goes by, he's back in country, and they decide to have the traditional wedding ceeremony - white dress, bridesmaids, the father giving away the bride, etc and a big reception.
So I arrive at the ceremony, which I assumed would be some sort of "blessing" ceremony rather than a real wedding, as they have already been married for a year. The ceremony actually took place not at a church but rather at a banquet hall. But the prrogram is a true wedding, the officant is listed as Father so-and-so. I'm told by another guest that it's actually going to be a Catholic ceremony, which surprised me because I know how strict the RC church is about inter-faith marriages, and I know that the couple has not been through any classes, and besides - they're already married! Plus the program did not seem Catholic to me - for example no communion. So the ceremony starts and the person who steps up as the officiant is not Faher so-and-so but rather a woman in a nice pants suit, no religious regalia at all. So here's the interesting part - it turns out that just 2 hours before the ceremony the priest emailed the bride to say sorry, he couldn't make it! He didn't bother to call, didn't give an excuse, and didn't offer to help find a replacement - amazing! Now this was in CT last week in the middle of a snow storm, so maybe he felt he couldn't drive. But many of us (me included) drove well over 100 miles that night without a problem. Luckily the father of the groom is friends with a woman who is a Justice of the Peace, and she was good enough to rush over and perform the ceremony. She basically took the program as already prepared and followed it, including prayers and scripture readings.
So my questions are these:
1. Is it possible that the ceremony would ever be considered a wedding by the RC church?
2. Given the circumstance of the priest bailing out at the last minute - could it be that perhaps it he was unaware that the couple was already married, and that's why he skipped? If so - how could the couple have gone through several months of planning and presumably talking with this priest without him being aware? And would a RC priest ever actually agree to preside at such a "wedding" in the first place? Any other ideas as to what actually happened?