Break on through.

Today was a huge day in the world of wedding. A jam-packed day of visits, we met with Deacon John at St. James and were approved to be married in the Catholic church. We also narrowed down our list of reception choices to a significantly smaller, but still significant, number.

The meeting at St. James was surprisingly painless. Almost fun. Deacon John met with us at 9 a.m. in the rectory to interview us for candidacy. Side note on the deacon: He looks like Friar Tuck and is just as pleasant and merry. Funny, because when I told Gavin we had an appointment with Deacon John, Gavin responded that he had been hoping for Friar Tuck.

Deacon John collected our basic info and asked about our religious practices. Then the deacon interviewed us each individually, asking some strange, but, he apologized, required, questions. We did a good job, apparently, so he called us back into the room together and went over all of the next steps. Not bad! Not as fun as The Newlywed Game, where we would have won a prize for the same, right answers, but better than what we pictured. The night before – last night - we had steeled ourselves for all sorts of wack-job, awkward questions to make sure we wouldn’t be rejected by THE church. (That’s right, the Pope rules.)

We now have to collect a little more information, sign up for one of many couple’s retreats and be paired with a married parish couple for a quiz (it sounds almost like something in Cosmo, but will undoubtedly include the words “Jesus” and “spirituality” much more often, and words like “hot sex” much less.)

The other big follow up is to schedule a date. It turns out St. James’s only does about 20 weddings a year (because it’s ugly?), so the pickings are all ours outside of Lent – which means March is out. We’ll deal.

Easy as pie.

We then ran the gamut of possibilities for our reception site from Winfield to Oak Brook to narrow the field. We realized that every option we’re considering is on or off of Butterfield Road. Easy enough! Down to five finalists, our list is very appealing and I’m getting excited about the possibilities. From west to east, they are:

• Arrowhead
• The Danada House
• The Abbington
• Esplanade Lakes by Doubletree
• Drury Lane

The Carlisle could be the dark horse if they ever respond to my query for menus, but probably not. Seven Bridges wasn’t bad either, but isn’t as convenient for guests.

Now we just need to cross our fingers and say a little prayer to the saints of availability and reasonable prices.