Posted by:
Breeze
(
)
Date: September 22, 2017 05:55AM
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.