Weddingbee Blog

Mr. Cannon and I were both raised Christian. I am United Methodist. We went to church every Sunday growing up, and I was baptized and confirmed. Mr. Cannon is Catholic. In addition to going to church every Sunday growing up, he also did K–8 at Catholic school. He was baptized and confirmed and did first communion. When we first started dating we didn’t attend church very often, and when we moved out west, we became Easter and Christmas attendees, switching between Catholic and United Methodist Churches.

I won’t speak for Mr. Cannon, but my faith in God has ebbed and flowed over the years. Sometimes I feel very close to Him, sometimes I just can’t seem to believe as I should (or feel I should). But, for various reasons, I have gained more faith as I grow older. The older I get, the more easily I accept that I don’t have all the answers. Having a child has helped me embrace the idea of God’s fatherly love for us, and the parent-child relationship in my own life has changed my understanding of my parent-child relationship with God. I still struggle with things, but I feel much more comfortable in my belief now.

Mr. Cannon and I both feel that the religious aspects of our childhoods had positive effects on us, so when we moved back to Ohio it was important to us to start attending church regularly and to get Cherry Bomb baptized. I looked into a few different churches and decided to give Epworth United Methodist a shot (based mostly on their website). I really enjoyed it. There were tons of service projects and I liked the pastoral staff. Mr. Cannon attended with me and he really liked it as well. He started referring to it as “our church.” I became a member. We got Cherry Bomb baptized there. And when we got engaged, we knew we would get married there.

Cherry Bomb’s baptism

However, you will notice that Mr. Cannon did not become a member. He still identifies as Catholic, and that’s totally fine by me! I’m not trying to convert him. We both want each other to believe whatever makes sense to us and to hand our beliefs on to our daughter so she can make decisions about her own beliefs when she grows up. We respect people of all faiths and lack of faiths—we’re all just trying to get by while making the world a better place, right? For us, loving others is the overarching message of our religion, so we make an effort to not judge others and to help others whenever possible.

Past our collective lovey dovey beliefs (which we try to embrace—I’m not going to pretend we’re by any means perfect), we do have to plan a ceremony. Although we’re marrying in a Methodist church, there are many decisions to be made regarding the content of the ceremony and how Mr. Cannon’s Catholicism can be included.

Do you and your partner have different faiths to incorporate in your ceremony?

All images personal unless otherwise noted