The Ceremony

I was brought up Catholic going to Church every Sunday, attending CCD, and have received all the sacraments I have been able to so far so I knew when the time came to get married it had to be in a Catholic Church.  Lucky for me Michael is Catholic too!  We started going to Saint Mary's Star of the Sea in Solomons together because the older we both got the less we attended and it was something that we wanted to start back up again.  So having the ceremony at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club was out of the question!  We went on the search for Catholic Churches around the area and called 4 different one's in the Annapolis area.  One wouldn't do it because it's the boat show that weekend in Annapolis and they never do weddings that weekend because of the boat show, another was going to be under renavation, we found one about 3 miles from the Beach Club (which we drove and saw after our tour of the Beach Club and it's beautiful), BUT they only do weddings at 3:00 and not a minute later!  I didn't want a ceremony starting at 3, I wanted an evening wedding, but the Priest wouldn't budge.  We found another Church near the Bay Bridge that did 3:30 and you had to pay to use the Church (which was the first time I have ever heard of this, it's usually donation only) and the fee was I think like $750 or something crazy like that.  I started to stress and became very upset. For the first time in my life I thought that I might not be able to get married in a Church.  The thought of not having my father walk me down a Church isle made my stomach upset, this was something that I refused to not do!  I called Erin my lovely wedding consultant from the Beach Club to get her input, she quickly calmed me down and told me that since the Ceremony is from 3-4 guest who are staying the night will have time to check into their hotel after the Ceremony and guest who aren't can head over and they will escort them to their lounge area where they can relax and have drinks until 5:00 when our cocktail hour begins on the deck.  Now why didn't I think of that? ; )  I was so relieved that it was going to work out.  We called Saint Christopers back, the Church about 3 miles from the Beach Club and told them to put us down for Oct 13 at 3:00.  I'm still not thrilled that the Ceremony is going to be starting at 3, I rather the Ceremony start at 5, but in the end it all worked out and it will still be the best day of my life!