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If you’ve spent any time watching America’s Funniest Home Videos you’ve seen just about everything happen at a wedding. You’ve probably also see a fair number of people doing exotic things for their wedding.
My wedding pretty much went as planned– except for the ring bearer that constantly wanted to step on my toes during a prayer!
Recently, there was one on AFV that had the minister having trouble staying awake– he passed out during the vows, woke up to finish them, but was unable to announce the new couple.
Then there’s this story out of Australia:
Wedding jokes aren’t always funny. When a bride in Austria jokingly answered “no” instead of “yes” when asked if she wanted to marry her husband-to-be, the official performing the civil wedding promptly broke off the ceremony.
Not even the bride’s sobs could reverse the decision and the couple had to wait two and a half months before they could give it another — successful — try, the Austrian newspaper Oberoesterreichischen Nachrichten reported Friday.
Officials at the registry office in the city of Steyr where the mishap occurred declined to comment directly but noted the incident was highly unusual, according to the newspaper.
Obviously, the ceremony was a whole lot more trivial to the bride-to-be than it was to the man performing the ceremony. And why shouldn’t it be? You’re making a set of commitments to a person for your entire life. I can understand if there’s some levity in other parts of the service, but if you cannot approach the most solemn and serious point– the exchanging of vows– with some degree of seriousness, are you really ready to get married?
that is the problem – that contemporary culture takes life as one big joke, denying God, sin and death altogether, pretending Those do not exist. Make fun and enjoy it. Until….
For as much as I feel bad that the gal was sorry for joking at such a time, I just can’t imagine being in that same situation. While some things can be funny within the wedding, I could never have stood with the man that I love and “joked” that I didn’t want to marry him. Even trying to be “funny”, it sounds so sarcastic, and I don’t think that has any place in the binding of two people in love, for the rest of their lives.
I agree. The fact that she was willing to joke at the expense of others in such a situation is not a good sign for the marriage. Well done to the presiding official in forcing the couple to go away and consider the solemnity of the wedding vows.
I am glad that they did try again and got it right, and I’m sure that the next time they stood for wedding vows she didn’t even have the thought to joke. I hope that the lesson from this wedding sunk into those that attended!
Ooh, I got in trouble with my dh’s dad when I jokingly teased about divorcing his son over something (I was TOTALLY joking)…his dad got upset and said, “We don’t joke about divorce.” I was 17 years old at the time–we were newly engaged, and as an adult, I definitely see his point of view. Divorce is not a joking matter. I took it lightly, because I had no intentions ever of divorcing anyone! But it was a good cheek-slap to me on taking marriage very seriously.
I’m so glad I married into a family that respects the sanctity of marriage.
A.W. Tozer had a list of things that were not things Christians should laugh at– it was a wakeup call to me too. We seem to want to find stuff to laugh about in everything.