Preamble: I have been married twice in the temple.
Both time the sealer gave us a short lecture of words of advice for a happy marriage.Then they would have us come to altar and marry us,

I learned Sunday, that the Temple Sealers no longer give a talk or advice.The couple comes into the sealing room. Go to the altar and are sealed. That's it.

We were told that if there was any advice to be given it would be outside the temple.

Talk about boring. What are the GA's thinking? Comments.

But temple weddings are soooo special! No flowers, no music, no personal vows, no proud father to walk the bride down the aisle (no father at all if he isn't "worthy"), no ring exchange, no love, no honor, no cherish......just weird outfits, and some old guy reciting mumbo jumbo and you're done.....NEXT!

Those green aprons totally make up for the lack of flowers. :)

Hahahaha like a god damn assembly line.

I'm putting in an order for a BLUE apron, Just In Case!

If true, it sounds about as personal applying for a marriage license at the state office...

....but that trick with the mirrors reflecting each other is so awesome:( Who needs some old "sealer" giving you advice anyhow?

That whole mirror thing is creepy as hell.

And even that is a big bait and switch. I saw pics (an artist rendition) in The New Era when I was a teen with a beautiful bride and groom standing in front of the mirrors and their reflections going on for eternity.

Never put 2 and 2 together, even after I'd been through the endowment, that we'd have the clown costume on when we looked in those mirrors and we'd look hideous. I could hardly hold the tears back from the time they told me I had to put that stuff on over my wedding dress (and wear that uglyass polygamy-looking veil), until I got to take it off. Actually would have been nice if there had been no little talk and we could have just gotten it over with and gone outside so the real "wedding" festivities could start.

Last month I attended the most beautiful wedding of my niece. She is out of the church and he was a non-member. Their parents have made sure that their kids have all had beautiful weddings whether in or out of the temple. But this one was just wonderful and amazing (beautiful outdoor setting) and everyone was "worthy" to come and it was such a joyous family affair. I couldn't stop thinking about what LDS kids and their families miss out on.

Wait, I thought the ring thing happened over the "altar"--do you mean that the ceremony is basically boiled to the promise to give your life 100% to TCOTPOTCOJCOLDS, and then BAM you're out the door??

Wedding rings are not (and never have been, so far as I know) part of the temple sealing ceremony.

Everything that happens in the temple was designed to be done 10,000 times in a row by proxy for the dead. Dead people don't need wedding rings, I guess.

Cutting 4-5 minutes off of each temple "wedding" for "advice" means they can do 4 more per day.

It's all about the numbers.

The guy we had went on and on and on and on. My legs couldn't take kneeling there. They started to shake really bad. I was SUFFERING. When he finally got around to doing the "ceremony," I was out of breath and hesitated before I said yes. My husband to me said, "You can't back out now" And everyone laughed. I was extremely healthy, thin, etc., so you can just imagine how long he went on.

It was miserable for me personally. It was like he was giving a talk in general conference or something. I would have preferred he just did the sealing and that is all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2017 11:23PM by cl2.

I had gone to a lot of trouble to get a temple recommend (I was already actively posting on RfM and was ready to head for the door when we got the news about the wedding.)

Still, out of the groom's side of the family, despite a seriously wavering testimony (to put it mildly), I was the only one who had any kind of shot at a temple recommend. I began diligently (though resentfully) attending all meetings, paying a full tithing, and generally behaving like a real Molly.

I got my recommend and attended the wedding. I remember wondering what all the huge hype was about. TBMs put SO much effort into promoting temple weddings - and for WHAT?? So some boring old man who didn't even know my son or his bride could mumble a few words, and presto-change-o, they were married for time and eternity? No music, no flowers, no "Here Comes the Bride" march - I was completely disillusioned.

That was the only temple wedding I have ever been to, but I have to assume that most of them are like that. Cookie-cutter, formulaic affairs, deadly dull, not a single individual touch about them.

Not worth it.

Didn't know the guy. We had requested my BIL's grandfather, who was in the temple presidency, but he got sick. He was quite old. I knew him and I know he would have been quick and probably inserted some humor.

Yet another case of LDS, Inc. making things as miserable as possible for it's donors...

Yup, that's it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2017 11:29PM by GNPE.

Well, now, think about it. No talk is needed--everyone there is already paying their tithing.

Now .... funerals are another story--lots of captives--easy pickins to roll out the infomercial. Let the blathering begin!

I like the change! Some dumb ass I've never met is supposed to give me marriage advice. Pointless and the ceremony takes longer.

How about some warning of what is about to take place before you go to the temple? I can't believe I was so stupid. No wonder I don't trust people anymore.

Sort of glad to hear this. The "advice" was quite impersonal and seemed forced with my own marriage. When my older daughter was married the officiator (temple pres) was 45 min late because he had to herd the cows someplace (Manti temple) and then spend his whole "advice" session warning against the evils of divorce which I am sure was not so pleasing to groom's parents who had each been divorced. That is just one of the reasons her marriage ended up being a big step out of the cult for me. At my younger daughter's wedding all I could think about was Holy Halleluja!! This is the last time I ever have to go to the temple!

They still talk about the covenants being made, just no marital advice.

OH boy. That "advice" was often given by a slightly senile old geezer on a rant about odd stuff.
Glad they got rid of that nonsense.

Lets be clear. There is no wedding ceremony in the temple.
It is a Sealing Ceremony for time and eternity. That's it. Just one of several ordinances.

I bet that part of the rule change is to level the playing field when couples are asking for certain sealers to marry them. Some folksy temple sealers give charming advice that the newly weds love. As the sealers gain a reputation for "giving a good wedding" it puts less articulate sealers being avoided for doing weddings.

There are some very popular sealers that are in high demand to do the weddings, other temple workers don't get asked to seal a couple unless the couples don't know or care who marries them.

Now you go in like every other couple and have a small carbon-copy wedding and you're done. They should just use a recording like the rest of the temple ceremony.

I'm not surprised. There was way too much individual leeway in those pre-ceremony talks. Right. They took too much time, too, almost as much time as getting everyone shuffled into their chairs, in the tiny sealing room. There were never very many people at the temple weddings I attended.

City Hall is more jovial.

No, the rings are given as an afterthought: "Oh, you have a ring? Step away from the altar, then put them on each other's fingers." No special words. Never, never any opportunity for the bride or groom to say anything.

My cousin officiated over my daughter's temple wedding, which made it more personal. He read a nice poem. We had a few family members there, some returned missionary friends of the groom, but no father of the bride. No brothers or sisters attended, because they were too young. No bridesmaids or groomsmen, because they weren't married yet. My attendance cost me thousands of dollars in back tithing, plus 5 months tithing, moving forward. I stopped paying, after she got married.

My daughter cried after the ceremony, and said, "That was NOT what I expected my wedding to be like." I told her that she and her husband were OFFICIALLY married, when they signed the marriage license in the little office, to the side of the sealing room. I reminded her that the fun reception we had planned together would be the REAL celebration, with all of her siblings, family, and friends there, and that her new husband had some nice surprises planned for the honeymoon.

We had been jammed into hot, crowded rooms, by grouchy matrons, and rushed through everything, with no time to fix her hair, that had been messed-up by the heavy hat and veil. The "veil" is not sheer, not see-through, not breathable, like a typical bridal veil. It is made of sack-cloth material, and is suffocating, when it covers your nose and mouth and eyes.

Yes--I can see why the oppressive, abusive cult wants to remove the only personal part of the sealing ritual.

I think this is also to cut down on the "Crazy' that some workers gave as advice - Even the church realizes that some of the advise being given was possibly relevant in 1962, but times have changed - For many grey haired temple workers times are the same - Got a load of crazy that made the last ceremony I attended very awkward - My niece is fairly progressive for a TBM and being told about the delights of a 1960s housewife was cringeworthy.

boil General Conference down to an opening hymn and prayer, sustain themselves and sing a closing hymn with a quick amen, and call it good. Anything else is useless advice that changes over time due to social pressures.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2017 10:37AM by cricket.

I was married in the Salt Lake Temple almost 33 years ago. I don't remember much of it. I do remember being weirded out that I was the only one in the room who had to cover their face. Evidently Gawd gets weirded out if a female face gets too close to his holy alter. I remember that afterword they made a pretty big deal about the ring exchange being NOT a part of the ceremony and that they were just being indulgent by letting us exchange them at all. And we had to stand as far away from the blessed alter as we could. I have no clue what kind of advice was offered.

The last LDS (non-Temple) marriage I went to, the bishop lectured the couple about how ole Stan would try to destroy their marriage through pornography and adultery. I doubt I was the nay one wondering why he was saying this at a marriage.

Then again, come to think of it, he was looking at me while he said that, hmmmmm.....



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2017 01:34PM by BYU Boner.

He was projecting his own issues

The GAs think?


I doubt it. They're just a bunch of dotards. They can't remember what it was like to get married, inside or outside of the International House of Handshakes...

The advice I got was to attend the temple often. They joked that since the temple had a cafeteria that we should go out for date night to "Dinner and a movie" at the temple. Everyone thought it was cute. I thought it was ridiculous.