I dreamed of having my wedding at a beautiful red brick church with a big white steeple, a gorgeous long aisle to walk down lined with cute little white pews on either side. I was so happy when I found Royal Lane Baptist Church, I immediately fell in love with this place. Unfortunately that love was short lived. I read the contract and was well aware of all of the restrictions however I do believe that they are a little much. Only live music is acceptable for the ceremony and you must pay the additional $200 even if you opt not to have the music minister play the organ. Every piece of music must be submitted months before the wedding ceremony and any lyrics and titles must be approved. I understand the church doesn't want any satanic music being played, but what is the harm in having "Over the rainbow?" Just because it doesn't contain any "our fathers" or "Holy" words doesn't make it inappropriate for a wedding! Also every musician that you hire to play for your ceremony must have a live audition and must be approved by the music minister, meaning- if you want your great aunt sue to sing for your wedding or if you want your talented little brother to play a song on his cello for you, they must audition and some old fart gets to say yes they are good enough or no, they are not allowed to play in your wedding! This outraged me! It really discouraged me from asking them because I wouldn't know how to tell them that the music minister may say they weren't good enough. I say it's my wedding and if i think they sound good then no one should question my decision. Another thing i was really discouraged with was that my florist fell through on our contract and was supposed to clean up the ceremony rose petals, candles, communion cups, etc... and she didn't. So i knew I was going to loose my $500 deposit already, but no big deal because the florist was going to reimburse me for failing to adhere to the contract. I was on my honeymoon and didn't know that my florist left all of my stuff up there, which by the way was not CHEAP. My candles alone cost $50.00! I got a phone call during my honeymoon from the church telling me that they were going to keep all of my precious ceremony items because of the failure to clean up the ceremony afterwards. I was in tears and begged them not to take my stuff away from me, and that i would send a family member to pick them up immediately. They agreed and my maid of honor went within the hour and all she got back was a crumbled box of ribbons, one out of the three of my unity candle holders and an old dried boutonniere that didn't even belong to my wedding! I was so hurt that the church kept my expensive candles, candle holders, aisle runner, communion cups, 20 votives, hurricane lamps and big white candles. They stole from me, and when confronted they said that it was in the contract. They showed no consideration even though they promised if we went to get the items the same day that they would not keep anything. I was so sad. I still look at my one unity candle base and cry because i will never get back those items that they took from me. they were keepsakes from that special day and as a church, I cannot believe they would advocate stealing, lying and being merciless, especially after they got to keep the $500 deposit. Even though it is a beautiful place, i would never ever ever recommend this location for a wedding ceremony. Plus, their bridal room is disgusting. Dimly lit, smells dank and is rundown. Don't even think about doing business with these people.
