The answer
The Patriarchate issued an instruction some years ago to all its churches to forbid marriages on the Sunday before Lent and the reason for this is that it would be likely to cause a breaking of the fast.
One could hardly expect the bridal couple to fast, either on the morning of their marriage, from the point of view of taking no food, or from the abstention from marital relations for 55 days straight after the marriage (this being the period of the Great Fast).
The Bible says: " Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? (Matt. 9:15)
If we were to allow couples to get married on the Sunday before Lent, we would be implicitly permitting them to break the fast, which would not be right.
This same situation would apply to any period of fasting, which is why it is necessary for marriage to be prohibited at such times.
[ 49 ]
Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory