So, I have reserved my date with a Catholic Church, but I haven't signed the contract or sent in my deposit yet. I still have another week or two to do that. But now I'm rethinking the whole thing for a few reasons:
1. The ceremony time is much earlier than I wanted to have it
2. I just spent all day picking out beautiful songs to walk down the aisle to, only to find out that the church doesn't allow you to choose your music. I really don't like the idea of having to use the boring, typical Wedding March song
3. We were both raised Catholic, but we aren't currently practicing Catholics, and I don't think it will matter to either of our families if we are married in a church or not
4. I really don't want to have to take 4 weeks of marriage courses (we are both in grad school and work full time, so I don't have the time or money for this right now)
So now I am trying to figure out what other options might be... I do like the idea of being married in a church. Maybe Lutheran or Presbyterian churches are more flexible on their rules regarding music, etc? I also like the idea of an outdoor ceremony in a garden. Phipps is a bit over our budget (it's 3 times the cost of our church), but maybe some other kind of park or garden? Does anyone know of good locations in the city to have a ceremony? Our reception location doesn't have a place for the ceremony. I hadn't done any research on this area because I just assumed we'd be using that church, now I'm running out of time! Please help!