Nobody Said it Was Easy

It seems that St. James, the part of the wedding that I thought would be easiest, is going to be the biggest challenge to us setting a date. Each contact with the church makes me more skeptical.

I called the rectory office very soon after we got engaged to request an appointment with our pastor so that we could select a date and go over the many Catholic "ground rules" for marriages. I received a return call saying I should pick up the brochure in the back of the church, and then call if I had more questions. Perhaps there is a way to get an appointment with the priest in the brochure? Maybe it's better constructed than the church's Web site and will answer all of my questions.

Nope.

Gavin picked it up today and said it isn't very useful. The one piece of information that did catch my attention, however, is that the church claims it will only allow services on Saturdays. I say claims because I'm going to fight this tooth and nail if I have to. Why? Another list to explain:

• Saturday is, without question, the most expensive day to get married. I'm not sure we would be able to actually have a reception if it were on a Saturday due to money.
• My great-Uncle Augie is a priest and a very cool, open minded man. We want him to do our ceremony, so poo poo to the church saying only on Saturday because there is only one priest.
• We haven't really talked about any Saturdays as a potential date, although we're still flexible.
• Because I have gone to this church since I was two and my family has put in a LOT of volunteer time there between the various ministries. I would hope they can be flexible.
• The church, which was rebuilt a couple years ago, is ugly as sin. No inspirations of purity here. It looks like a warehouse except for the pretty cool stained glass way off to the side in only one corner of the entire church.

So, I need to make the exact same phone call we started with one week ago again to again try to set up an appointment, look at a calendar, and now convince them to be flexible on the day of the week that we can use the church. Given that we're in the Lenten season, I'll keep my choice words about the situation to myself.