Another triumph: my fiance and I were able to reserve the church we like for our wedding ceremony. Most churches here don't have their own property, so the few that do (mostly Lutheran) are fairly popular venues for weddings.
We called before heading over to the church to make sure there was someone in the office. However, it took quite a bit of maneuvering via snowbanks and locked gates to actually get inside the offices, which were in a different building (just in case we thought it was going to be easy). This is not so much for security purposes as it is a way of life...lots of courtyards to navigate.
The church is Finnish-Lutheran, though I don't know how often the Finns are involved; it seemed like there were mainly Russians around. We were supposed to have a recommendation from our pastor, but since several couples from our church have tied the knot there in the past few years, we were able to get away without calling in our pastor. Also, Andrey had performed one of the weddings, so he is pretty familiar with everything.
In lieu of talking to our leadership, the Lutheran pastor wanted to make sure we were familiar with the rules. 1) The wedding can be performed only after a marriage certificate from the State is obtained. 2) No alcohol on the premises, ever. 3) The pastor performing the wedding ceremony should be male. ("You said the pastor marrying you is from Germany?" "Yes, but we still have to check with him." "Ah, there's the pronoun I was looking for.")
Our date was still open, and the secretary wrote down our names, but she mentioned that there had been a mix-up with double-booking, so it seems that we will have to check in later and make sure nothing has changed.
We called before heading over to the church to make sure there was someone in the office. However, it took quite a bit of maneuvering via snowbanks and locked gates to actually get inside the offices, which were in a different building (just in case we thought it was going to be easy). This is not so much for security purposes as it is a way of life...lots of courtyards to navigate.
The church is Finnish-Lutheran, though I don't know how often the Finns are involved; it seemed like there were mainly Russians around. We were supposed to have a recommendation from our pastor, but since several couples from our church have tied the knot there in the past few years, we were able to get away without calling in our pastor. Also, Andrey had performed one of the weddings, so he is pretty familiar with everything.
In lieu of talking to our leadership, the Lutheran pastor wanted to make sure we were familiar with the rules. 1) The wedding can be performed only after a marriage certificate from the State is obtained. 2) No alcohol on the premises, ever. 3) The pastor performing the wedding ceremony should be male. ("You said the pastor marrying you is from Germany?" "Yes, but we still have to check with him." "Ah, there's the pronoun I was looking for.")
Our date was still open, and the secretary wrote down our names, but she mentioned that there had been a mix-up with double-booking, so it seems that we will have to check in later and make sure nothing has changed.
Congratulations! I want a picture! Is it a pretty church? Why did you pick that one?
ReplyDeleteProbably not going to post pictures until later. :) Yes, it's quite pretty and suits our needs.
ReplyDelete