Now that we have 50% (and what we thought would be the hardest part) of the annulment process completed, we are starting to feel hopeful about being able to be married in the Church. And we are so excited about it! But...it raises many questions that we are wrangling with.
We are hoping to have an October wedding (provided the timing works out, we know we have to be flexible about this), which in Missouri could be warm, sunny, rainy, cold just depending on the weather whim. We originally wanted an outdoor reception because we are both very outdoorsy people, but think the stress of worrying about the weather would kill the fun of the wedding!
We literally attend two or three different churches...we usually go to the one where I went into the Church, because it feels like a home church to me, and because I cantor there. I would prefer to get married there because it is absolutely beautiful and we also really like the priest. However, the reception location is...not so much. We would prefer to have the reception in the hall of another Catholic church that we also attend from time to time...the hall is lovely, and the church opens out into a beautiful little pond with ducks and a gazebo. My church is about 35 minutes from the second church. Would that be horribly tacky and offensive to the priests and congregations, to have the wedding at one church and the reception at another?
We also wonder about timing. If we have the wedding at 2, and we do plan to have a full Mass, it would be over about 3 or so. We plan to take all our pictures afterward, because I don't want him seeing me in my dress until I come down the aisle
! However, we know that we and our Catholic guests will have to attend Mass somewhere that evening or the next morning, since the wedding Mass doesn't "count." Mass at church #1 is at 5, so that's out; Mass at church #2 is at 5:30, so that's a possibility...but the question is, would the church let us have the reception in the hall while Mass is going on in the church itself?
I know we probably need to talk to our local folks, but before we do I wanted to know if folks thought we were being unreasonable, excessively complicated, etc. The last thing we want to do is offend our priest and our parish...we've looked at another site for the reception but it can't hold 50 people inside, and my groom is balking at the idea of paying so much for a site AND then having to rent a tent with walls and possibly heaters!
Thanks for your input! We are trying to keep our budge tiny, tiny, tiny, and the whole thing simply and as stress-free as possible.
Ohhh, this is starting to get FUN!!!!!!!!!!!
Linda