Wedding Wednesday: How Are We Getting Married, Again?

I feel like I've reached the hardest part of wedding planning so far. I hate that it is because for so many people it's an incredibly easy decision. Who is going to marry us? That question has yet to be answered and it should have been one of the first things we checked off our list. Clearly we can't have a wedding without an officiant and so far we haven't found an officiant. We also haven't really started the search.

I don't know why but searching for an officiant makes me super nervous. It's very important to us that we have a religious ceremony. I don't think that Brad and I would have found each other without God leading us to situations which lead us to each other. I grew up attending church very regularly and while Brad didn't, he still has his faith and beliefs and to us we would prefer a religious over a civil ceremony. This means we can't exactly go find a Justice of the Peace. I also feel like we will have trouble finding an actual minister who will agree to marry us. I grew up church of Christ and Brad was raised Baptist (until his parents divorced and he stopped attending church). I know that a preacher from the church of Christ will refuse to marry us because Brad and I are living together before we are married. I'm also nervous that a Baptist minister will feel the same way (as the two are very similar). However, I have a little bit more faith that this will work out for us since Brad's dad and stepmother attend a Baptist church near where we are getting married. We have spoken to them about the possibility of their minister marrying us and plan to attend church with them next time we are home. Lots of personal situations have come up lately that have prevented this from happening so far. Still, I'm nervous to e-mail their minister for fear of him rejecting us.

While we've talked about our desire to raise our children in church, I guess at this moment in our lives attending church regularly hasn't worked out for us. I have doubts that churches will preach our beliefs and accept us for what we are, which is an unmarried couple living together. While I know we are good people, I don't want to have to deal with that (unwarranted) judgment. I guess that's why we haven't pursued an officiant so far. At this point in my life I'm choosing Jesus over religion. But I still want a religious ceremony. Make sense? Not really to me either...

If anyone else has struggled with this I'd love to hear how you worked through it. If anyone has any recommendations for officiants in the Atlanta area who perform Christian ceremonies we'd love to hear them.

Happy Wedding Wednesday!

I promise next week's won't be so dramatic...