It’s Official

You heard me right, its official. We have officially hired our officiant for our wedding. Today we met with Rev. B and decided it was a good fit for us and are moving forward with the next steps.

I went to the same High School as Rev. B and was friends with his younger sister. He is also the associate pastor at my mom’s church. Mr. P and I both grew up in churches but haven’t found our church home in Denver. This is in part because we haven’t been looking. It was important to Mr. P and I that we found someone we felt like we knew. We weren’t going to call 1-800-Marry-Me and hire whoever answered the phone. This was a more personal decision and we are very happy with our selection.

A special man in our lives—we’ll call him Grandpa M— may not be able to officiate our wedding due to health circumstances, so we were advised to find someone else. Great news is Rev. B is very open to including said special person if he is able to make it to the wedding! Best of both worlds! In lieu of Grandpa M’s health, we decided we needed to find someone in Colorado and someone we had a connection with.

A few things that I like about Rev. B:

1) He doesn’t do “who gives this bride away”. Big bonus points in my book. No offense to any traditional brides who wish to be given away. It’s just not my thing. I’m not really anyone’s property to be given or received.

2) The word “obey” will NOT be incorporated into our vows. Again, big bonus points in my book. If you know me, you’ll know that I don’t take orders very well. Not only would this be pointless because I don’t take orders, I’ll probably see it as a challenge to do the complete opposite of what you are commanding me to do. Right, Mom?

3) He is willing to do what we want for the ceremony. I hadn’t thought this would be a rarity, but it is. When researching questions to ask the officiant there were some crazy questions out there like “Is there a dress code?” “Can we use flash photography?” “Can we use non-traditional wedding songs or readings?” Apparently in 2010—soon to be 2011—there are restrictions on what the Bride and Groom can do, say, sing or wear for their own wedding. Thankfully Rev B is willing to help us shape a ceremony that, as he says, “reflects who we are as a couple”.

4) He’s young. There is nothing wrong with having someone older perform your wedding, but I really like the fact that Rev B is young. I think it will help us relate to one another and I think it’s one of the main reasons he’s so flexible with shaping the ceremony. It also makes him seem like a real person. Often when I meet clergy they don’t always seem like real people. I like this about Rev B.

5) Mr. P likes him.

My goal of having all the venders booked by January is a very reasonable goal. I may actually meet my goal before the holidays. There are only a handful of things left to figure out. We are well on our way to starting a wonderful marriage!