Sacred Heart Catholic Church — Attraction in Tampa

I pray this review serves as a warning to all Catholic couples preparing for the Holy Sacrament of Marriage that while this church is breathtakingly beautiful, it's NOT worth the hassle trying to book your ceremony here. Their "Staff Liaison" for weddings will ignore you and string you along with false hope for days at a time. There's no sense of urgency and the rest of the Parrish does not care. My fiancé and I were trying for over 2 weeks to find out if we're actually on the calendar for our wedding date next year because Ms. "liaison" / executive assistant kept giving us conflicting info and refused to give us a straight answer. She told my fiancé weeks ago yes, we are on the calendar. But she told me last Friday no, we are not. She said she'd call me back on Monday but its now Thursday and I haven't been able to get in touch with her again. She never bothered to call us back and the few times we managed to get in touch with her, the answer was always the same. "Let me talk to the Pastor and I'll call you back." Strangely enough, an associate of mine called yesterday to ask about availability on our chosen date and she got through just fine. She didn't get sent to voicemail like we have been all week. We've asked you several times now, can we set an appointment to meet, how do we issue payment to lock in the date, do we need to pay a deposit, etc. not once would you discuss pricing with us or set an appointment. We were prepared to immediately pay IN FULL whatever the costs were to secure that date, despite not knowing what those costs would be yet. Had we been accepted here, we would've committed to making regular tithings as a thank you for having us. Yet, you actively avoid our phone calls and emails. The other staff treated us like a nuisance when we called and told us to be patient. Furthermore, you have this beautiful wedding page on the church website stating that your priority is to prepare couples for a happy, life-long marriage but then you leave us hanging for several days at a time. Today, my fiancé finally reaches you and out of nowhere you tell him the Pastor said no, but you can't give him a reason why. We have less than a year left to plan this ceremony, all of our planning is on hold until we have a church decided on, and all of the reception venues and vendors we were looking at in that area are now booked up for our selected wedding date, so thanks for making the most exciting time in our lives unnecessarily more stressful than it needs to be. Two weeks is TOO LONG to leave an engaged couple waiting on a simple yes or no answer!! You also don't seem to understand our rites are the exact same as yours. "Well we know your customs are different, your rites take longer." That's pretty discriminatory of you to say.. but NO, ma'am they do not. You told us IN WRITING that you allot an hour for your marriage rites. We confirmed with our priest that our wedding rite will take 35 minutes tops. Time constraints were never an issue here, you're just using this excuse to refuse us in your sanctuary. "If you have a visiting priest, he needs to follow our policies." We've told you who our priest is, he is no stranger to your Parrish. I dreamed of getting married here in since I was a little girl, but I guess God has another plan for us. I can do nothing else but trust He will help us find the right church in time for our special day, one where the staff are excited and eager to assist us despite any cultural differences. The other negative reviews on this Google page are very telling and I wish I'd read them sooner. I pray other couples read this soon enough and steer clear, especially those of a Catholic rite other than Roman Catholic. A parish that remains true to the Divine teachings of Jesus Christ would NEVER behave in this manner and discriminate against anyone of any culture, so I am interpreting this major disappointment as a blessing in disguise. I wonder what the Diocese of St Petersburg would think...

This church was my dream wedding venue. It is no doubt a beautiful church.

Months have passed since our marriage ceremony took place in this church. Regrettably, our experience with the administrative office before and after our union has proven to be profoundly frustrating. Communication has been the most challenging; responses, if received at all, require weeks, sometimes even months. With utmost discretion, I shall withhold the employee's name. This review is solely on the individual overseeing the marriage ceremonies. Despite our earnest request for an alternative contact, she appears to be the sole contact.

In our interactions with her, she repeatedly assured us, "I’ll make sure to do it this week," or "I meant to do this today." After months, these declarations remain unfulfilled. I could predict her responses should I ever succeed in securing a conversation. My bridal party, too, encountered the same scripted assurances when speaking with her.

MOST IMPORTANT MATTER: Our original marriage license never arrived in the courthouse, a matter we articulated on multiple occasions. The church is responsible for mailing the original document to the court. The courthouse instead received only a copy of our marriage license. After numerous calls and emails, we have not received a response. Unfortunately, our license to marry has...

After getting married and having both of our children baptized in this church, I can not believe how negative this church has become.

The administrative staff is shockingly rude and uninviting. We just wanted to get more information about the process for receiving first communion. The lady on the phone on our first attempt to get the information, became so frustrated and unhelpful that she hung up the phone. A few weeks later we called back to try to get information once again but unfortunately the same lady answered the phone and became short and frustrated once again.

As stated above, we were married in this church and had both our children baptized here but they refused to even give us information about the preparation for first communion. The church does not accept anyone from outside the parish nor anyone that hasn’t donated large sums of money to be part of it.

It is sad to see such a fast decline in this parish where just a few years ago it was a happy, vibrant and inviting place.

The church really needs to go back, review their staff and become inviting again before more people just like us leave this place...