A Letter to Fr John

This is a little late, but...

Two weeks ago, I sent this letter to Fr John, the head priest at our church:

Hi Fr. John, 

I emailed you a while back about reserving January 28th for Aaron Hinkley and I's wedding, and I just had some questions I was hoping you could help me with. 

1. As far as time goes, you had mentioned 4:30 was the latest we could schedule the ceremony?  Just wanted to confirm this.  How long does a ceremony generally last?

2. Are there any certain rules of decorations and things that we should be aware of for decorating the ceremony space?

3. I have never attended an Orthodox wedding, Aaron had told me that we have wedding crowns that we wear for part of the ceremony, is there anything else we need to provide for the ceremony?  And also, I'd like to have a ceremony programs sort of explaining the ceremony (most of our guests will have not been to an Orthodox wedding ceremony) - do you know of a good resource to find this information, or maybe have an example of one?

4. Do we need to provide music?

5. Costs for ceremony?

6. Will the church be available in the afternoon for photos? (we are planning to take them beforehand I think, if we can)

7. Fr. Symeon had mentioned something about meeting for pre-marriage classes, or something along those lines - is that something offered/recommended that couples do?

I think that is all I had for now, sorry there are so many - I am a crazy planner! :) Thank you for all your help!

Natalie Martinez

His response was:

I think we should set up a meeting.

lol

So we did just that, and had a meeting with Fr John last Saturday.

SO helpful!

I got this handy packet of info, all of my questions (for now) answered, AND 2 wedding videos of ceremonies that took place at our church!

In case you ever wondered how to have an Orthodox wedding, here you go! (click the image for a larger view)