My mind is just shot today for some reason, and I'm trying to write an e-mail to the priest who won't call me back. Apparently he's really bad at calling people back and making appointments, so I thought he might have to read an e-mail.
Here's what I have:
Dear Fr. J,
My name is () and I would love to talk to you about celebrating my marriage at ()'s this fall. I realize this is probably a really busy time of year for you, so I thought it might be easier to get you my information via e-mail.
A little information about my fiance and I: I was a member of ()'s from baptism until about age 23, my mother, A, was a member there for almost 30 years until she moved four years ago to Utah. ()'s was such an incredibly important community to myself and to my family that I have always seen it as the place that I start my new life and my new family. I would love to talk to you about what I can do to help make this into a reality. My fiance, (), is not Catholic, he was baptized Episcopal, but his family has not practiced in many years. He is looking forward to celebrating our marriage in the Catholic Church. He is a second lieutenant is the U.S. Air Force, we met about 3 years ago and became engaged in July. We put off starting to plan a wedding because we knew that he would be re-classed and re-stationed, and we didn't want to start planning until things moved into place, which, of course, happened right after Thanksgiving, so we have just now gotten settled. He is now stationed in San Antonio, Texas, however, he is on a temporary duty in Virginia until the middle of May. I moved to San Antonio at the end of last month.
While it isn't a unique situation, I realize that it may require a bit more work for us to complete all of our pre-Cana wedding preparation. I have been attending a church here, and am more than willing to make arrangements with the priest here to complete whatever needs to be done, and () is also willing to contact the Catholic chaplain on the base where he is now. Right now we'd really like to begin to nail down what we need to do so that it can be completed in a timely fashion. I realize that working things out long-distance isn't ideal for anyone, but anything I can do to make this happen I will do. We are also completely willing to drive back to () once () is back here and meet with you; it would probably be late May or early June before this was possible. I am willing to make the drive myself before then, but () would not be able to join us until he is able to take the leave to come with me.
We would like to get married this fall in October or early November. When I spoke to the parish office I was told that the 27th of October has already been booked, and I had heard that the church's Fall Festival would be on the 20th. We'd love to be able to set a date as soon as is possible, so that we can begin to inform our family and friends. We are both so excited to begin this new chapter in our lives.
Thank you so much for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon,
()