It seems like we go through so many stages in our lives. First you are growing up and adjusting to be part of the family that you are living with. Then you need to adjust to being out on your own and responsible for yourself and then, if you choose to get married, you need to adjust to forming your own family unit. Each stage brings new challenges as well as joys. It seems like only yesterday that I was adjusting to making a home and life with my husband, and now we are helping our daughter with her wedding plans. The circle of life moves around very quickly.

My daughter is a very organized person. She is also a perfectionist. It seems that she has taken the best skills of my husband and I. Her dream is to have a simple wedding that the guests will enjoy, and she wants all the details to be perfect. Her greatest worry in the planning this week is the wedding music. She has most of the other details worked through, but music is a very important area of her life.

My daughter majored in music and teaches music at the high school level. She plays the piano very well and also has a lovely voice. She has many friends that are musicians so I thought the wedding music would be a simple task. Her problem is the strict priest at the parish where she is holding the ceremony. Their wedding is scheduled for late Saturday afternoon. They wanted an evening wedding, however that would interfere with the regular Saturday evening mass. The priest told them that the latest they could hold the ceremony is four o’clock. This will allow the church and parking lot to clear prior to the seven o’clock mass. For the wedding music my daughter wants a string quartet as well as a pianist. This will involve rearranging a small area in the church. The priest is telling her no, because he does not feel that the area will be rearranged in time for the regular mass. Also he said he would need to approve her wedding music selection. My Daughter and her fiancé have a friend that is a priest who will be performing the ceremony, so she does not understand why she has to deal with the parish priest at all. I told her that she is learning the life lesson that it is sometimes easier to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission. She should have just had her friends come in and set up the day of the wedding, without talking to the priest first. She is now getting the help of her priest friend to get permission for the wedding music. I am sure that it will be a wonderful celebration, but it is unfortunate that the personality of one person has to add additional stress into the planning process.