On tradition - Part 1 - The Church

Yes, I will admit it. I will stand up proudly and say "I like traditional weddings".

The GiB and I have been to A LOT of weddings over the last few years, including those of some very close friends. These weddings have varied from churches, to gardens, to beaches, cocktail receptions and full sit down 3 course dinners. They have all been different and unique and wonderful.

Now that we are planning our own wedding - well, where to start?!?

I thought I knew what I wanted:

1. I wanted a white wedding - I wanted to wear a white dress and look and feel like a princess.
2. I wanted to get married in a Church (I am a practising Anglican).
3. I wanted to walk down the aisle and see GiB smile, maybe even cry.
4. I wanted to cry (tears of joy).
5. I wanted to have lots of beautiful photos.
6. I wanted to have an awesome party - with dancing.

There is a lot in the blogging world about sitting down with your partner and trying to decide what it is you want out of your day as a start to the planning process. However, that hasn't really worked for us.

One post I read recently was this one here. What really resonated with me about this post was the fact that "As the process has moved along, we sort of figured out what we wanted along the way". That is infinitely true for GiB and me.

Case in point: the Church - and how we ended up in Broome....

GiB is not religious - at all.

But he knows that a Church wedding is important to me and he is happy to get married in a Church. He still wants input into the service, which is great as I want this to be a collaborative effort.

Initially - I always thought I wanted a big Church wedding at Christ Church Claremont. This place is very special to me - it is where I really found who God was for me, where I was an altar server and communion minister, where I used to sing taize and play my clarinet. It is also the first Church I had ever been to outside of where I grew up as a kid, where my dad served as a student when he was going through his training for the priesthood (a story for another time).

But that was part of my life when I was 15.

When GiB and I went back there shortly after we got engaged, we went inside and as I sat in the back pew there was - nothing.

Sure, I still felt that peace and sense of God and soul I always get in one of the big high Churches, the Churches that look and feel like what my Grandad would term a 'proper' Church. But it wasn't 'us'.

It's not a Church I have worshipped at since GiB and I have been together. Despite the fact that GiB does not go to Church at all, it is not a Church that represents or speaks to us as a couple.

Although I still love it for Midnight Mass at Christmas with the organs, the stained glass, the choirs, the incense, the pomp and ceremony of the whole thing - it doesn't suit us and it won't suit our wedding.

This ultimately affected our decision to get married in Broome. We had been toying with the idea of a destination wedding for some time, particularly as a way of legitimately keeping the invite list small (GiB has a very large extended family). When I realised that Christ Church just wasn't going to work for us I was instantly more amenable to considering other options. Although, it required a trip to Broome to check out the much smaller Anglican Church there and see if that would work!!

We took that trip in April last year, and it was then that our plans really started to take shape. We had been engaged for nearly a year by then.

We rocked up at the little weatherboard church on a very humid, stinking hot April day:


Pretty cute huh?

The Reverend Tim Mildenhall met us and very enthusiastically showed us around - pointing out various features, such as the updated sound system, the lectern, and the gorgeous woodwork around the altar. GiB took some photos and I wandered around trying to get a feel for the place.

View from the side

The lovely front verandah

View of the altar from the back - 'Peace be still'

The pews



The lectern

  Rev Tim was also very helpful in talking to us about the officiating side of things. We had already asked a priest from Perth to officiate (and at that time he had accepted - more on that drama later!), but Rev Tim kindly offered to assist in any way possible, adding that he was there for more than just help in planning the wedding, but also available to give advice or help on planning our marriage as well. I thought this was lovely. It showed that he was also invested in this process from a spiritual angle and that was very comforting.

Planning a destination wedding is hard when you don't know the area or the suppliers, and particularly somewhere like Broome where everything is so seasonal and you really don't know if the people you talk to now will still be there come wedding time in August. So it was reassuring to know Rev Tim was happy not only to assist with the ceremony side of things, but also with sourcing music, flowers, etc or anything else we needed.

And the main thing - Broome Church suited us! It was small, intimate, casual, quaint, beachy and suited 'the vibe' of what we wanted for our wedding. Although we were still trying to determine just what that 'vibe' was, we knew it when we saw it - especially during that April trip!