My husband wanted to get married at my church since I had grown up there. Because pastors had changed, we chose to have two officiants at our wedding: my former pastor and current pastor. The current pastor, Rev. Ken Jackson, performed our marriage counseling which was a lot less intrusive and time consuming than we had excepted-especially compared to our Catholic friends.
I was surprised at some of the rules and costs. We were required to hire the church's wedding coordinator, pay for candles, cleaning services, etc. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. The wedding coordinator was helpful in setting up and decorating the church for us. The rule that frustrated me the most was that flash photography was not allowed in the sanctuary during the ceremony. While I understand this is a ceremony before God which deserves our respect, I'd also like memories of the event without reenacting it. Our photographers were gracious enough to do their best taking pictures without a flash, although the results were less than spectacular. Due to time constraints with our reception, we did not have time to reenact the ceremony.
Overall, we were very pleased with the ceremony. It was kept short and sweet, per our request, and went off without a hitch. When we couldn't blow bubbles outside due to torrential rain, Rev. Ken was kind enough to let us blow bubbles inside! This had never been allowed before (bubbles getting on the carpet and all) but it worked perfectly and added another special, memorable moment to our wedding. We definitely recommend using St. Matthew's to others.
