Venttttttt

Today, my fiance and I met with the Priest of the church we were interested in getting married at. I have been a member of the parish my whole life, so I of course always envisioned my wedding to be there. However, since we are getting married on a Friday, the earliest ceremony time we can have at the church is 4pm. Our wedding is in November which means it's dark at 5, and we wouldn't be able to have any sunlight/sunset pics at our venue, which overlooks the Great South Bay and one of the main reasons why we chose it. We are both strongly against doing a first look, and not crazy about the spots our venue offers as ceremony spaces. So now we are left with a few options: getting married at my fiances Catholic church, but since I'm not Catholic I don't know what else I'd have to do, or finding a different church closer to our venue..

I guess I'm just so frustrated because I really thought my church would be more accommodating, and the idea of using a church that neither my fiance or I have an affiliation with is weird to me. I really didn't think this would get me as upset as it did today and I feel at such a loss on what to do. I know we still have a lot of time to think it over, but it just seems so daunting right now lol. Any other fall/winter brides having this kind of timing dilemma yet?

Venttttttt

This weighed a lot on my mind too. Were having a Friday night wedding in November too, and were getting married in my FH's Roman Catholic Church, were both catholic. At first the priest suggested 4 and then be thought about and was nice enough to make the ceremony start at 3. So with that we feel like well have from 4 to maybe 515 for pictures in sunlight. Best of luck figuring this out, see if his church is accommodating or go back to your church and see if you can change their mind. Did they say why it couldn't be earlier?

Venttttttt

I'm getting married the day after you so I totally get what you mean. Everyone keeps talking to us about the first look pictures and I never really thought about them but always pictured FH seeing me for the first time down the aisle but now I'm starting to consider them because of the lighting and since I won't be getting married in a church I won't have time between to take them or to go to a different location :(

Venttttttt

The church also runs a elementary school and nursery school, so their day ends at 3pm. The parking lot can become alittle crazy with buses and parents picking up students and what not. I understand but thought they'd be more receptive to us starting at like 2 before school ends.

Thankfully we haven't recieved many people trying to talk us into a first look. I know I will be compromising on many things but this is one thing I know I'm not willing to, so figuring out the timing of the day is just going to be our challenge lol.

Venttttttt

I totally understand your dilema.. We were gonna have a November wedding but change to august for the daylight reason. It should not be a problem for you to get married in a RC church even if you're not RC.. The only thing is you may have to agree that you will raise your children catholic if you're planning to have them. So if you're not planning to raise them RC, you may have to lie a smidge lol

Venttttttt

Hey there, I'm a 2015 bride, but I know this issue way too well. I got burned on WW for asking the question of what time we should have our ceremony to beat the sunset. I considered a morning ceremony and night reception, but that was 'selfish' and 'rude' of me to even consider. We decided on first look photos the afternoon before the ceremony. I was against it at first and had a whole breakdown over it, but realistically, in November, it's close to impossible to squeeze everything into the evening. Now I'm worried about if it rains...We haven't chosen a location for photos, but I want to take them outside. If it rains, all of it will be for nothing because I'm not ruining my dress before the ceremony.

Hugs! It's not easy. Think about what's more important to you, the church, or the photos.

If it helps, I want to try and do a sparkler receiving line and get good just married photos from that!

Venttttttt

Thanks everyone! I really like the sparkler receiving line idea, it sounds like fun! For now we are going to look into the ceremony at my fiances church and then go from there. I really didn't expect this decision to be the one to cause so much stress right now lol.