Shut out...literally!

So-- My family & I are Catholic.  I have attended Catholic churches all of my life, and though Jonathan is not Catholic, he has graciously agreed to have the wedding in the location of my choice.  So-- through default we have decided to have our wedding at St. Catherine's.  My family & I currently attend this church, and this is also the last church that my Uncle John presided at, so despite it's lackluster appearance, we were happy to have it there.  Only DAYS after our engagement, I quickly called the church and set the date!  Though our date isn't exactly "set" until after our first meeting with the priest, if there are no other weddings on that date at that time, we are penciled in.  

So today was our first meeting with the Priest.  Fr. Tighe welcomed us in, and we were having a very successful first meeting.  Thank goodness!  As the meeting was coming to a close, Fr. Tighe was simply explaining the course of events that will happen between now and our wedding day, which he goes on to say that we will go through our calendar and set in our next meeting.  At that point I let him know that we have already booked our date with the N. Raleigh Hilton & that Connie (the receptionist) has confirmed it and penciled us in.  His face fell.

At that moment, he pulled out his blackberry just to see if she really had put us down for the date.  "No worries, he says, I'm sure there is nothing to worry about."

Ha!  Wrong!  

Not only had Connie not penciled us in for the date, but it is the date of ordination.  So I'm thinking Ok, so.  Father Tighe can't/won't be there, but he wasn't who I was planning on using anyway!

Then he goes on to say: "The Bishop has put a freeze on May 22nd for any weddings as all Priests in the Diocese are required to attend."

Ok. So not only can Fr. Tighe not officiate our wedding at St. Catherine's.  NO Catholic church or Catholic Priest in a three hour radius can hold our wedding.  Crap! Crap! Crap! CRAP!  Stupid Stupid Stupid receptionist!!!!!!

So we leave the meeting with Fr. Tighe explaining that both May 1st & May 29th are available and that we have first dibs on either of those dates & that he will hold them for us until we tell him which we want.  Uhm, that's all well & good except we have already booked the reception venue, booked the photographer & printed the save-the-dates!!

The whole way home (which is about a thirty minute drive) Jonathan & I are trying to strategize how we are going to inform my mother without giving her a heart attack.  We decided that this tactic did not exist.  

As I walked in my mom JOKINGLY asks "So is the wedding still on?"  and my only response was "Mom, breathe..."

I explain to her everything that happened and that we will just have to select a different church (Non-catholic) to have our wedding.  Her approach was a little different.  She wanted to change the date.  This is crazy.  So, in hopes of clearing all of our heads, Jonathan & I drove down six forks & stopped in EVERY church along our way to North Hills (we were finishing our registry today).  Every. Single. Church apologetically turned us away.  We had to be members.  Crap.

Well--Jonathan & I figured we'd forget about it all for a while & just finish out our registry before coming home to tackle the situation.  We had a very successful afternoon at Target.  We were agreeing very easily on almost every!  Despite the growing knot in our throats, it was a very pleasant afternoon.

Then we got home.  My mom was in the garage defrosting the freezer.  I greeted her, and she reassured us that she called Fr. Tighe to ask if we bring our own priest (from another state) if we could USE the church on the same date.  She was waiting for him to call her back.  THEN she shares her next idea.  She remembered that St. Francis is not run by the Diocese so there is a slight chance that they may not have to attend the ordination & do our wedding if the church is even still available!

So I go into the house and make the call immediately.  The wedding coordinator there was so cheerful (a giant leap from the woman I dealt with at St. Catherine's) and assured me that there would be NO problems about Jonathan being a non-cathlolic & us not being parishioners, etc.  So I told her our date and she starts with "Well, we already have a booked for that day at 11AM..." Crap "But we still have 1pm & 3pm available." YES!

So Miss Gladys walked me through all the registration process & has sent in our request to officially book the date (which she ASSURED me there would be no conflicts as she has already spoken to a friar about it).  So thank the Lord!  As my Aunt Jo Ann pointed out--today is the 12th (which is a special number in my family) and all things have to work out!  Very true!

So our wedding is on May 22, 2010 at 3pm at St. Francis of Assisi in Raleigh, NC.  This ends up working out even better because this is the exact church I wanted to get married in since I was a little girl.  This church also allows for later weddings (later that 1pm that is) which means we don't now have a 5 hour gap between our wedding & reception!! WOOHOO!!!!