Catholic Church Ceremony

We just booked our ceremony venue, and if you knew me at all, it should come as no suprise.  My life is a series of binaries, evident in a few of my favorite things like…the colors black and white, mud huts and penthouses, stilettos and flip-flops, New York and Timbuktu. My fiance once said it best, when I overheard him talking about me to his friend, “She is equally comfortable brunching with ambassadors in Manhattan as camping out in the Sahara desert.” (Not that I’ve ever done the first one, but maybe he was forecasting :)

So, if you’ve been reading EAD or following my posts you would know by now, that I am planning an unconventional reception, in a stark large loft in Chicago, with minimal flowers but lots of flair.  Naturally, I am countering this modern and stark element of my wedding with a very traditional, decadent, grand Roman Catholic church, with all the bells and whistles including your standard long Catholic mass performed in English AND Polish. Here is a picture of the interior, it couldn’t be more different than my venue, albeit spectacurly beautiful nonetheless.

Saint Mary of the Angels - Chicago, IL

I wanted an very unconventional but traditional wedding.  Who says you can’t have it all!?

My fiance is not Catholic.  Was this an issue?  Not really, not for us.  We had dated for over 3 years, and thankfully have talked about it before….so we knew very well what was important to each of us and respect what the other believes in.   Since my fiance is not very religious, and I can’t seem to seperate my nationality from my religion making it very important to me,  my fiance let it be known from the beginning that he would happily get married in a Catholic Church.  But I don’t think he knows what he got himself into.  Besides officially proclaiming that he will raise our kids Catholic, we also have to attend a series of Pre-Cana classes that analyze our relationship and the future of it (which actually I am really looking forward to, just curious).  To top it all off, the mass will be partly in Polish – I have visions of the wedding scene from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” re-occuring in my head.  Hopefully, he will understand enough to say “I do” when the moment comes :)

Here is a picture of one of the angel gargoyles lining the top of St. Mary of the Woods in Chicago.

angel2

If he had been opposed to getting married in my church, I know we would have come to a happy medium and gotten married at a location special (or just beautiful) to us.  How did you choose your ceremony space?  Did any of you battle a question of getting married in a religious space or not?