Bringing the Church to the Farm

As you already know, the ceremony and reception are all taking place at Gale Woods Farm. One difficult part in choosing our venue was telling Jon’s mom that we were not getting married in the church.

Jon grew up attending a Lutheran church with his mom. Once Jon started working full time after high school, his trips to church grew fewer and fewer. When he moved out, he stopped altogether, albeit the holiday occasions. Nonetheless, Jon’s faith has never been lost even though he doesn’t talk much about it. He’s pretty quiet about his faith in God, and tho he isn’t the best church-goer, he still believes quite strongly. 

I grew up in a Christian fashion. I was baptized Methodist and attended a non-denominational Christian church during my youth, but my family stopped going before I got to high school. Life got busy and we just fell out of it. Unlike Jon, whose strong faith never staggered, my faith in God waivered a bit. I went through a tough time in high school and lost my faith for a while. I couldn’t understand why bad things happen to good people, and stopped believing.

Then early in my college years, I found my faith again. It had changed slightly, and some things about the Christian faith still don’t make sense to me, but I believe in God and I talk to Him regularly.

Now, in the wedding planning, Jon was totally ok with us not getting married in the church. But he had a feeling that his mom wouldn’t love the idea.

Even as a Christian, I’ve never imagined getting married in a church. I love the outdoors and more times than not, feel His presence outside more so than within the confines of a building.

In the discussion with FMIL, we talked about how much we loved GWF and how it perfectly fit our vision. We also talked about how important it was to have a Christian based ceremony, and to bring that aspect with to GWF. At first, I think she was a little stunned by it, but then understood our vision and was happy with our choice. We wanted her contribution to the wedding to be the ceremony details – helping us find a pastor from her church and drawing up a ceremony. She LOVED it and jumped at the opportunity.

 

I'm thrilled that our vision can put everyone at ease and feel good about our ceremony!