Wedding DJ at Saint Matthew Catholic Church in Durham, NC

The Space

Saint Matthew Catholic Church started with a small group of families rather than a building. About 100 families from Immaculate Conception formed the new parish when the Diocese of Raleigh established Saint Matthew in July 1990, and Fr. Thomas Tully served as the first pastor. The parish did not have a home yet at that point, it existed as a congregation first and built its physical space around that founding group.

The parish bought forested land on Mason Road in December 1991, next to the Avila Retreat Center in north Durham, and broke ground on September 21, 1993, the feast day of St. Matthew. The first mass was held in July 1994 inside a new 6,000 square foot multi-purpose building, which is the building couples marry in today. That multi-purpose design means the room was built to serve more than one function, not as a single-use sanctuary.

Capacity & Layout

The 6,000 square foot building is the whole footprint, sanctuary and gathering space together, which is a helpful number for a couple sizing up how many guests can realistically fit before the room feels crowded. A parish that grew from around 100 founding families in 1990 to more than 450 families by 2013 has filled that space plenty of times for regular Sunday worship, so it is a proven room for a full congregation.

Regular mass times are worth knowing before booking a ceremony date, since the church runs Saturday mass at 4:30pm, Sunday masses at 8:30am and 11am, and daily weekday masses. A wedding has to work around that active schedule rather than around an empty building, which is part of what it means to marry in a working parish church instead of a rented event hall.

Amenities

The clearest amenity tied to this parish is the cemetery. St. Matthew Catholic Cemetery was established and consecrated in 1997, and it is the only Catholic cemetery in Durham County, which gives the parish a permanence beyond any one wedding date. It sits on the same grounds as the church, so the property carries both a beginning-of-life role for couples marrying here and an end-of-life role for the wider Catholic community in the county.

Beyond the cemetery, the material available on this parish does not name specific reception amenities such as a parish hall or kitchen, so anything beyond the ceremony itself should be confirmed directly with the parish office. What is documented is the setting: a forested parcel purchased specifically for the parish, next to the Avila Retreat Center, giving the grounds a quieter, wooded feel rather than a downtown church lot.

Location & Getting There

Saint Matthew sits on Mason Road in north Durham, on land the parish bought in December 1991 specifically because it sat next to the Avila Retreat Center. That neighboring retreat property is part of what kept the land wooded rather than developed, so guests arriving for a ceremony are driving into a quieter, tree-lined setting rather than a busy commercial corridor.

We have worked a wedding at Saint Matthew, and the room plays the way its description suggests, a 6,000 square foot multi-purpose building rather than a soaring stone cathedral, so a ceremony sound system sits in a contained space rather than fighting a long echo, which keeps vows and any processional music sounding clear throughout the room.