Getting Settled

So I guess we've been in the UP for about three weeks now and we're finally getting into the routine of daily life. I'm still not working because of a ridiculous hold up on my background check, but I will start on the 26th. The first two weeks I had off were really nice since our first week up here was so chaotic. I was able to get everything unpacked, find a place for most of it, and get things to feel "normal" once again. I'm enjoying how all of my days are consistent - I sleep the same number of hours, go to bed and get up and the same time, eat around the same times, etc. And what's great is that my daily pattern shouldn't change very much once I'm back to work.

The other thing I've had a lot of time for has been wedding planning. We're getting a lot of the big details worked out. We'll meet with our banquet coordinator this week and sign our contract/put down our deposit and I've picked out my dress and the bridesmaid dresses. Joe's sister, Crystal, is going to make our cake and we're both super stoked about that. Kristy is going to make the jewelry for the bridal party as well as do some art work for the invitations and I have a sample of the invitation paper coming any day. My flowers are picked out and I'll be getting samples of them soon as well. It's all coming together.

That leaves one very important detail: the ceremony. Joe and I are both baptized Catholic but decided a long time ago that we did not want to get married in the Catholic Church. Neither of us are practicing Catholics and we feel that going through the 6 months of preparation just so we can have our ceremony inside the building isn't right. So I've spent hours and hours researching marriage requirements in other churches and religions. We considered the steps inside the courthouse (they're marble and gorgeous) but the courthouse won't open on a Saturday for such a function. There is a theater we can rent and they'll set it up like a church, but I've been trying to get a hold of the rental office for the place for the past week and have thus far been unsuccessful. We know of a retired judge that can marry us, but we need a location. And we know better than to plan an outdoor wedding for the end of September in the UP. So that brings us back to a church.

Truth be told I think I'd really like to get married in a church. The Cathedral in Marquette is gorgeous, but I just don't feel right getting married there. I have many, many objections to the ways of the Catholic religion at this point in my life and I feel like I'd be using the Church wrongly if I go through the motions of marriage prep with the religion. If the bride doesn't feel worthy of communion at her own wedding then why would she get married there? I don't know, it's hard to explain.

There is an Episcopalian Church on Ridge Street downtown that I visited yesterday. I spoke with the secretary about having a wedding there and looked around a little. St. Paul's is a breathtakingly beautiful. It's an old Church, complete with stone walls, stained glass windows, and horribly uncomfortable, solid wood pews. I didn't get a great look at the altar but it certainly seemed to fit with the rest of the church. The secretary gave me a form to fill out about the wedding. It's a $300 fee to rent the church for the day and we have to provide our own clergy. We can ask the pastor of St. Paul's to do it, but we have to discuss that with him, where as a committee at the church will decide if we can use the building. Basically, anyone could marry us there, we'd just be renting the space...which is what we've been looking for all along.

My mother thinks it's outrageous to pay $300 to rent the church when we'll have to pay clergy on top of that. And she might be right, I don't know. But after being inside St. Paul's yesterday and having the chance to play through the idea in my mind, I know I want to have the ceremony in a church and I'm pretty sure I want it to be at St. Paul's. She wants me to look into other churches, which I'll definitely do, and she suggested I find out how much it would be for a member to have a wedding in the church and then find out what we'd need to do to become members. I'm not going to do this. A cheaper wedding ceremony is the wrong reason to join a church, and I know that. Maybe the $300 is just a little punishment for being disconnected with God. :)

When Joe and I sat down and talked about it, we decided that the ceremony is the one area of our wedding day that we're not going to cut corners. We're already saving a lot of money in other areas - we went with a cheaper reception site, we have friends doing the DJing and photography (hopefully). His sister is making the cake (and even if she does let us pay her for it, I know she won't let us pay her what we'd have paid retail). We're getting the flowers wholesale and arranging them ourselves. I know that the final price tag for our wedding is going to be hard to swallow, but there are some things I just don't want to skimp on - and the ceremony is at the top of the list.