Hi, Sylvia —

You can have a Catholic wedding in a church of another denomination, with a Catholic witness, if one of the parties is of that other denomination, and you have the bishop's permission.

As for scenic sites and such, the reason for the requirement that Catholics marry in a Catholic Church, is because Christian marriage is a Sacrament, Matrimony, which is an incarnation of the mystery of Christ's union with the Church.

Catholic marriage is a public sacrament, an ecclesial event, ideally celebrated in the context of the Eucharist, of which it is an analogue, and in the presence of the faithful, who witness the founding of a new "domestic Church". Catholic marriage is not a private pledge of romantic love, nor a romantic theatrical event requiring a stage setting.

We have been heavily influenced by Hollywood in our concept of marriage, not in the sense that we are copying movies, but in the sense that a wedding is now seen as a bit of show biz, and many Protestant ceremonies accentuate this aspect.

A Catholic wedding is a public act of prayer, an exercise of the priesthood of the couple and of the faithful gathered, with the priest or cleric present as an official witness, and ideally, as I said, with the Sacrifice of the Mass accompanying the Sacrament of Matrimony. This is because the sacrament takes its meaning from the self-giving of Christ in His Passion and Resurrection and in the Eucharist.

The rule about a church, however, is a rule. It is not an essential aspect of the sacrament, and can be dispensed from in an emergency, or for pastoral conditions which make it very difficult. Indeed, in places where a cleric comes rarely, people may marry each other, with witnesses, and have the marriage later solemnized.

The Church used to allow private vows, but they were abused, as one can imagine. That was in a time when the pledge to marry was considered almost as binding as the marriage itself.