Where to say "I do?"

Right after getting engaged, we decided to get married in the summer of 2010, and we were left with around 5-7 months to plan a wedding (gasp!). J and I knew that we had to pick a ceremony location and get a date like...immediately!

We both knew we'd get married in a Catholic Church, so you'd think we would be on the same page. But we had three options for churches that meant something to us:

1. St. Anne's, the church we will attend together after the wedding, when we live in the new apartment. Deep in the heart of Houston, surrounded by fun things.

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 2. St. Mary's, the church I currently attend. In the city I live in, 1.5 hours away from Houston. Recently renovated, absolutely gorgeous.

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3. Prince of Peace, the church my parents attend. In our hometown Houston suburb, surrounded by familiar things.

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Since the wedding is really about J and me, and our life together (you know, since its a wedding and all), we decided to go with Option 1, our future church. No surprise there, right? I made a phone call the the parish office on approximately December 7th, and received the following information:

•  They don't even tell you whether or not they have any available dates unless you're a registered parishioner.
• Our new apartment is inside the parish boundaries, so we can be registered parishioners (yay!).
• New church members can register monthly at the Monthly Registration Meeting, the next of which will be January 10th (PANIC!).

That's right...we'd have to put the wedding planning on hold for over a month, and then register, only to possibly be told that there were no Summer 2010 dates left anyway! I'd been around the Weddingbee "waiting boards" enough to know that December through February is "Engagement Season," and hundreds of other newly affianced brides were out there!!! I was not okay with sitting idly while my favorite reception venues' availability dissappeared to brides with more efficient ceremony planning tactics!

I reluctantly called J with the bad news, and our seemed-so-easy Ceremony plans began to wither away slowly. Did anyone else fail miserably with their first wedding planning task? Did something you thought would be easy turn out to be just the opposite?