Officially Difficult (or: Difficulty with the Officiant)

One of the compromises I've made for the wedding is not pushing the whole 'having a friend officiate' thing. Mr. Tango and his family just don't understand it, especially given that we had the legal wedding/paperwork done for immigration issues, so the religious part is what's left. I understand that logic, don't get me wrong. I believe strongly in my faith and believe in the sacredness of marriage.

But I did have the perfect person in mind. Our mutual friend, who's known us since we met, who's bilingual and serious but oh-so-happy all the time. Even when I'm a crazy (maybe drunk) dancing mess, she is calm and collected. See?

(Me: Crazy. Friend C: Beautiful)

But alas, we'll have to involve her some other way. One condition of this compromise was that Mr. Tango would have to take the lead on finding the priest. He had to be willing to let us personalize the ceremony, conduct it on the beach, and be somewhat bilingual. Those are actually VERY difficult things to find, evidently.

We've been speaking with one Padre (father) for about 3 months now. He seems a little bit crazy, but is bilingual, available on our date, and has some good recommendations. But we can't seem to pin it down! He wanted us to pay for his hotel, since it's about 1.5 hours from the city. This seemed a bit weird to me, but we were okay with it - until he asked to be put up at our wedding venue - the most expensive hotel that nobody in our party will be staying at. Ummmm, sorry - not going to happen. We're too broke. We're figuring out if there'as an alternative (e.g. staying at the cheap hotel), but we don't want him in a bad mood for the wedding if he doesn't like the accomodations. And we're 5.5 months out, so we need to firm this up, soon!

Is it common for the priest to be so aggressive in bargaining and such? I didn't expect it! Argh (yes, I do like pirate noises) - I just want someone to marry us!

How did you find your priest? Was it hard to nail everything down?