Weddings

A friend of mine is planning to get married next year, and not surprisingly, she's getting some pressure from family to keep it traditional.

Well, bollocks to that. Couples should do what works for them, and never mind what their parents think. Wear a purple wedding dress, wear ripped or stone-washed jeans, or wear red-orange fezes. Whatever you like, whatever works for you, it's all fine. It's your wedding day, and you should enjoy yourselves.

We kept our own wedding pretty simple -- six groomsmen and a groomsmaid, plus five bridesmaids and two bridesmen -- but I wish in many ways it had been even simpler. By the time the wedding rolled around, I would have been more than happy to drop at least one of my groomsmen. My brother and his wife kept their wedding party to just themselves, and their guests strictly to family.

I'd also have settled for more unusual. Some couples get married in an underground chapel in the Crystal Cave, just outside Hellertown, Pa., on Halloween. That would be amazing, though the wedding party would be small.

One of the traditional items is the Unity candle, where the parents of the bride and groom light candles to represent their grown children, which the children bring together to light one large candle to symbolize their new life together. We didn't do that. Instead we celebrated Communion together, just the two of us. We also took our marriage vows from the issue of the Fantastic Four where John Storm and Alicia Masters got married.

Another friend of mine, when he got married, he and his wife did air Communion. Ken's explanation was that he and his wife had planned to take Communion together. Unfortunately, the person in charge of Communion had forgotten to place either element in the appropriate place, with the result that they had to "fake it." They went through the motions of taking Communion, drinking nonexistent juice from empty cups, and eating nonexistent bread from empty trays.

Do whatever works for you, even if it means you have to fake it.


Copyright © 2008 by David Learn. Used with permission.


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Wedding bloopers to avoid

It's been a few years since my wedding, but some of the mishaps still spring to memory today, and I find them amusing perhaps in a way I was unable to appreciate at the time. Some of them even made it into a Brothers Grinn mailing about wedding portents of ill omen:

For starters:

1. My wife tripped on her way up to the altar.

2. My parents were 40 minutes late for the wedding, and they had the rings.

3. We forgot to go outside for the rice-throwing until after our pictures were taken.

4. The DJ at the reception forgot to announce everyone who was in the wedding party with the result that my brother-in-law was skipped.

5. We failed to include all the lyrics for one of the worship songs in the bulletin.

6. We arrived late to our reception because the photos took longer than expected (even though we made a valiant effort to have them taken before the ceremony). When we arrived, our guests had eaten all the appetizers, and when we were notified that the food was ready, we completely forgot about proper protocol.

7. Without making any announcements about lunch being ready, without telling people the order they should go in, the entire wedding party went up and got lunch. Three bites into lunch, I realized we had forgotten to have Mark -- the minister of the church we attended -- say grace.

I walked over to his table and before I could say a word, he told me, "Don't sweat it. You're not the first person to forget grace on his wedding day."n