We got a church!

We'll be at the chapel of 1st Presbyterian in Evanston. It's big enough to fit everyone we can afford to invite, small enough to feel full, and is freakin' GORGEOUS! It doesn't have a sound system, so no entering or exiting to movie themes (I was trying to work in the Star Wars Ep 4 Throne Room end music as a recessional), but it has this fabulous pipe organ, and we know enough musicians to do a lot of magificent live music, and the acoustics are great in there. There's a lot more to do, but we have the huge things down: the facilities for both the ceremony and the reception.

The meeting of the families

Last night we organized a party at Pronto Roma, a fantastic Italian place near Heidi's home, for the Chens and the Fishers to meet for the first time. Was I nervous? Not really. I figured my family had already met and liked Heidi, her family had already met and liked me (and they're pretty accepting and easygoing), and we were already engaged, so if there were going to be issues, they could cope with them. My well-traveled and somewhat snooty mom started talking to Heidi's dad about his homeland, and that relationship was one of the ones I was concerned about. They got along well, so no worries. In fact, that was the case across the board. Everybody got along really well. Heidi's sister tends to be a little more reserved around new people, so she spoke more to us then anybody else, but her brother more than made up for it, being the entertainer of that family. The two moms ended up sitting next to one another, and comparing notes. Note that I spend a lot more time over at Heidi's folks than she does over at my family, but it ended up being quite the bonding. Towards the end I was talking to my sister about something unrelated, and she said, "You did well, Heidi's family is very nice." We talked a bit about my dad never meeting Heidi, which has been a bug up my craw for a long time, and my sister said, "Why do you think you got to know her in the first place? Dad probably introduced you." I don't know how much I believe that, but I'll go with it. In short, the meeting of the families went very well, better than I had expected.

One down

Ok, so we have the reception site locked down and now we have to figure out the ceremony part.

My church and John's church aren't really options at this point, so we're accepting suggestions and referrals - feel free to contribute!

Constraints are:

must be available Sept. 2 in the early afternoon (2pm is preferable)
must allow us to bring our own officiant/clergy
must have a center aisle
must be able to fit about 120-130 people comfortably
must be a protestant church or a neutral public facility w/ indoor accommodations (park district, mansion, rental house, etc)
must be near (like, no more than 20 minutes from) or in Chicago

We've seen one place and we're looking at a few more... here's hopin'!

happy birthday to john!!!