Going to the chapel...

I'm not sure if we are waaaay ahead of the game on this one, but tonight is our first meeting with the pastor who will be marrying us, Pastor Dave. I know it seems really early to be doing something like this, but it one more thing that we can get out of the way early.

Picking the pastor who was going to marry us was the hardest decision we've had to make so far. Originally we were going to have J's stepdad, an ordained minister, marry us, but I knew that my parents, who are very religious would want us to have a minister do it. I grew up in a Lutheran church in West Bend and J went to a United Church of Christ in the Milwaukee area. Having the wedding at my hometown church just wasn't an option, since I didn't want to have guests make the 45+ minute drive from ceremony to reception site. Plus, I haven't really been active in that church for some time and I don't know any of the pastors that are there now. So my church was out all together. This proved to be the first spot of contention with my parents...they really wanted us to be married by a Lutheran minister.

J's church on the other hand, is located in a Milwaukee suburb and the pastor that he had growing up was still with the church, perfect! Convincing my parents that this was going to be ok, was a bit tricky. Mom and Dad wanted us to go check out a bunch of Lutheran churches in Milwaukee to see if any of those pastors would do it. But J and I stood firm. We both knew that we wanted to be married by someone why had ties to at least one of us. And that's Pastor Dave! After explaining that to my parents, they finally go on board (I think) and we are ready to go!

So tonight we get to meet with Pastor Dave to hammer out as many details as we can. I'll let you know how it goes!