Wedding Planning, part 1 of infinity...

I am sure to be doing a great deal of talking about my wedding plans over the next year and a half. Matt thinks I'm going to have the whole thing planned in 3 months at the rate I'm going. So far, we've decided on:
our bridal party, composed of a mix of family and good friends
our colors - red and black
bridesmaids dresses - I've told my bridesmaids to pick out their own dress, so long as it is black, floor-length, and elegant.
and a time of year - summer 2009

I'd begun looking for non-church venues at which to have our ceremony, when it occurred to me that Matt and I haven't talked about the where portion of our wedding in a long time. We talked about it, and he said that it seemed odd for us to be married outside of a church when everyone in both of our families has been married inside a church. A week or so later, Matt said that he'd been thinking about it, and with how large his family is compared to mine, he felt like we should do something else to make sure my family had some sort of equal representation - that we should look into getting married at a Methodist church. I'm thrilled. I have no problems with having a priest helping to officiate at my wedding; I think it's a great way to make sure that we honor both of the faiths in which we were raised. My problem with getting married in a Catholic church is the number of promises I'll have to make that I am not necessarily comfortable making. I'm not sure which faith I want our children baptized in; what I would really like to see happen is for our children to have equal exposure to both the Methodist and Catholic churches, and when they're old enough, let them decide which, if either, church they want to become associated with. I have a hard time with the fact that the Catholic church does not allow women to serve as priests, or in a priest's capacity. I want children; I don't want to promise a priest that I "understand my Catholic husband's responsibility regarding the children." I attended services at a Methodist church close to my apartment this morning to check it out for my wedding. It's a beautiful church, the style is very English - lots of dark, warm, rich wood detail in the sanctuary, a large altar area - simple, but elegant. The cover of the wedding brochure they gave me has a quote from The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, (1992), which I really identify with: "We affirm the sanctity of the marriage covenant which is expressed in love, mutual support, personal commitment, and shared fidelity between a man and a woman. We believe that God's blessing rests upon such marriage, whether or not there are children of the union. We reject social norms that assume different standards for women than for men in marriage."
Amen.
The church I went to this morning is very flexible and reasonable when it comes to not only price, but how you want your wedding ceremony to be. They had no problems with me wanting to bring in not only a priest, but also my own minister. If Matt and I don't use a minister from their church, we also don't need to attend their pre-wedding counseling (it's the responsibility of the clergy performing the ceremony to cover this with us).
I appreciate that kind of flexibility. The Methodist Church downtown I was looking into initially is absolutely beautiful - much more gothic cathedral than protestant church. But you must use their clergy, anyone else involved in officiating must be approved, all music must be reviewed and approved, you can't use an aisle runner, etc. Now, granted, most of this isn't a big deal, it's just that I feel very welcomed by the freedom afforded by the church close to home. And, an extra $1000 for the ceremony isn't exactly welcoming, either!
I'm very hopeful that Matt doesn't change his mind and that we will be married in a Methodist church. A church is far less expensive, and much more personal, than anywhere else I've looked.