and not just ANY church, i REALLLLLLLLLLLLY wanted to get married in a Spanish mission-style church; a church with old-school pews, not theater-style seats, and a semi-long dramatic aisle. although Phoenix is a very diverse city with a lot of churches, it was still hard to just find one church that could accommodate our then 250-guest wedding (now 350, yikes!), was available on our date, would let us have our own officiant, and wouldn't charge us an arm and a leg (our little church doesn't have it's own building). Some church were just ruled out based on their interior decor (think early 90s purple and teal), size capacity, location (I think my guests would not be happy to drive 30 min+ from the ceremony to the reception), or rental fees (up to $2k+!!!!).
Notes to my fellow Phx brides: A LOT of churches don't rent out their facilities to non-members! And if they do, you often times have to use their clergy/have them participate in the ceremony. Also, expect church rentals to be in the $800-2,000 range. Seriously. Probably 95% of the churches we looked at were $1500 to rent.
I had only 2 weeks to find a church before I had to leave Phx for school again (this was back in February). You can imagine my stress and frustration! I started off my search with some popular large churches in Phoenix and Scottsdale:
Central United Methodist Church - this church shares a parking lot with PAM, so it would have been really convenient... BUT they weren't sure it would be available since our date is really close to Christmas, and we wouldn't be able to move their Christmas decor (bright red poinsettias, Christmas trees, etc)
Historic First Presbyterian - this church is GORGEOUS!!!!! i still love it and sigh every time i drive by it... but it had 2 aisles and i had NO CLUE what to do about with the seating arrangements for that. it was really sooo what i wanted, except for the 2 aisles business. DAH! Plus parking would be a MESS, as it's in the middle of downtown Phx.
Scottsdale Bible Church - we visited their smaller chapel that is apart from their main campus. It was nice, had a gorgeous stained glass window in front, but had a really short aisle (as you can see in the above picture. that was literally it.)
mr. Ramen showing us the CCC sanctuaryChaparral Christian Church - BEAUTIFUL! We thought this was it; perfect aisle length, classy decor, lots of room, bridal room, big parking lot.... until their coordinator contacted us to tell us that they do not allow weddings so close to Christmas. Another bummer.
La Casa de Cristo Lutheran - this was the the kind of church building look i really liked; it's mission style, etc... but ALAS, we're not Lutheran. so this was an immediate no-go. I actually didn't even get to see the inside, they shot me down so fast after i walked into the office. But if you're Lutheran, I would totally look into this church because it looks beautiful!
First United Methodist - I actually found out about this church because they had a booth at a bridal show, which was a little bit interesting.... but they are really nice, their facilities are beautiful (the outside isn't quite my style, but eh, big deal). Drawbacks? their Christmas decor can't be removed AND the coordinator actually suggested that I change my wedding colors to match their decor. AND they already had a wedding booked for earlier that day. (Sorry, I couldn't find any pictures!)
I also looked into some pretty obscure churches in the area as well. Translation: I drove around and stopped at EVERY.SINGLE.CHURCH. that I passed. literally. (Mr. Ramen was mostly busy slaving away at work, so I had to go solo). There was only one that would have fit the bill.
Shepherd of the Desert Lutheran (I think I stopped by almost every single Lutheran church in the Valley, and was automatically shot down, again, as I'm not Lutheran....) - this was the only Lutheran church that would consider opening their doors to us, since my dad is a pastor. It was cute, but had a pretty short aisle, would have BARELY fit our guests, and was pretty far out in East Scottsdale - too far from PAM.
So...I was pretty freakin' desperate at this point, and resorted to Google-mapping "churches in Phoenix" and began clicking on every.single.red.dot. I kid you not. And that's when it popped up. A church on a little side street called Whitton Avenue Bible Church.
to emphasize just how nice this church is... i took these pictures!!! uh, not so convincing....anyways. so think how much better it looks in real life!
The crazy thing is... this guy that sometimes helps out at our church actually is an elder there, and because they knew of our church they quickly agreed to let us use the church facilities (and the rental was BY FAR the lowest amount, well under $1k), it was clean and not outdated, they had pews, the aisle was the perfect length, and best of all - we could use any and all of their equipment AND they would take down any Christmas decorations they had that we didn't want up!!! They are ridiculously awesome. And the "wedding coordinator" is a young guy who is the assistant pastor at the church, who is SOOO chill. SO AWESOME. Again, God perfectly provided for us! You'd think I'd learn to stop stressing by now...
There's a few other church I checked into, but didn't have any pictures,etc ... so if you Phx brides need more options/suggestions... you can always email/PM me!
How did you find your ceremony location? Or did you make life easier for yourself by having the ceremony and reception at the same place?
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