Why do (did) you want to get married in a church?

Neither one of us are very religious but I grew up in the church. However, several years ago I found this beautiful church in Sonoma that I always thought would be a great place to get married. We actually went to their Christmas Eve service the same night DH proposed to me so then it became special to us. So I guess for us it was more about the sentiment as well as the aesthetic. It really worked out because the venue we chose for the reception was only 10 minutes away. In order to get married at that church we had to do some pre-marital homework and then have a counseling session with the pastor which we both found useful.

Our pastor asked us this too! It caught us off guard as well haha.

FH has been a member of this church for 25 of his 26 years and I started going to church with him there before we were even “official.” I was raised Catholic and had stared to feel like it wasn’t a good fit for me and I fell in love with FH’s Methodist Church. I told our pastor that we had never even considered anything else. It was important to us that we were married in the church. Our Church was where I fell in love with FH. Listening to ththe sermons and talking about them afterwards at lunch are some of my favorite early dating memories.

I grew up in the church, but honestly I just wanted us to have everything in the same venue. FH wants an open bar, so that & a church reception just doesn’t work obviously lol I didn’t like any of the venues near his home church, so we settled on a venue we both liked.

I belonged to a church growing up, but in my teen years, my parents left that church and just didn't find another one before I moved out. I've been moving in recent years and haven't found one that I'd like to attend regularly, and FH's family was never able to find a church they liked, so they never belonged to one. It didn't seem right to pick a church that we had no connection to. We're still getting married by a pastor, but we're outdoors, and honestly, I usually feel God's presence more in nature anyway.