Wayfarers Chapel

I'm one of those Catholic brides who long for the look and feel of an outdoor wedding but are confined to the rules of the Church, which basically say that in order for the Church to recognize your marriage, you'd need to be married in a church.  So I've been looking for a way to reconcile my desire for an outdoor wedding and my parents' desire (and probably his parents', too) that our marriage be recognized by the Church.  One way is Wayfarer's Chapel in Palos Verdes, designed by Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright's son.

The boyfriend and I went to visit the chapel ourselves earlier this week.  I think he knows I'm secretly scouting for wedding locations, but we went under the guise of "sightseeing."  And what a sight to behold!

Pros:

• It is breathtakingly stunning.  The soft way the light enters the chapel, the views of the ocean from the cliff side, the modern fountain and small garden surrounding the place... I imagine it'd be a wedding photographer's dream.  It's so beautiful that we'd save money on decorations because the setting is already gorgeous.
• It is tiny.  The website says that the chapel will accommodate up to 100 guests.  This is a huge plus for me; I would want something as personal as my wedding ceremony to be shared only by our closest friends and family, and having a chapel that small makes it easy to limit the guests our parents would want us to invite.  Most people would enjoy the reception more anyway.
• It is in the LA area.  I originally thought that my wedding would be in the Bay Area, but having the ceremony where I grew up (LA area, not Palos Verdes!) would mean a lot to me.  

Cons:

• They are not too keen on letting you choose your music or your officiant.  The music is less of a big deal (though I'd rather not come in with the traditional wedding march), but I worry that the chapel will restrict the participation of a Catholic priest there in order to make it a formal Catholic mass/wedding.  That was kind of the whole point, after all.
• It is in the LA area.  While I'm happy to have the ceremony in LA, I'm not so thrilled about moving the reception away from the Bay Area where I imagine the majority of our reception guests will be.  And splitting the two means doubling the costs of makeup, hair, and probably other vendors I haven't thought of yet.  My friend suggested that I just do the reception in LA, too, but... I don't know, we'll see. (Edit 7/31/10: K suggested that I save money on hair or makeup by hiring her so that my costs there don't double.  Huzzah!  But I don't think that'd be for both hair and makeup.)
• Not a huge con, but the sticker price is $2500 to book Wayfarer's Chapel.  This is not a price that I mind for such a beautiful location and setting, but when you compare this to the cost of getting married in other churches (maybe a few hundred dollars or donation-based), it's a hefty premium.

I have that feeling I got from when I saw the Mark Schneider Kismet ring.  Now that I've seen something that's pulled so much on my heartstrings, it's going to be really hard to let go.