I have noticed that my nikon 17-55 2.8 doesn't focus well, or sharply on images that are further than about 4 meters away, especially when I am zoomed out anywhere under 35mm. Do you think this is a defect in the lens. I have heard that some lenses have several autofocus calibration points. ie. one for 55mm, one for 35mm. one for 25mm etc.
Could one of them be off. I have tried both focusing with the nearest focus point, and focusing with the middle and recomposing. Both with the same results. Can I send this in and get it looked at? I could show you images from other weddings as well.

here are two example. the first at 32mm the second at 17mm

The only time I had problems with mine I took the camera to KEH and had them adjust the auto focus. It worked perfectly afterwards. That isn't to say that your problem might be the lens, mine wasn't as bad as yours appears to be.

Well, the wider you go the harder it is if your subject is too small for the focus point. The targets need a big, juicy target to lock onto.

But based on those images (assuming you focused and recomposed) I doubt that's the problem.

Definitely send it in to Nikon for repair. I sent in my 70-200 2.8 VR because it was intermittently failing to auto focus. I got it back in 2 weeks good as new.