Hi, I've been lurking for a long time almost got sucked into the church, but I did some research first and came to my senses!
I have some friends that are not mormon, but went to a mormon wedding here in the UK at the meeting house. Before the ceremony had even begun they were taking photos, as you would do at weddings! But someone came over the loud speaker and told everyone that photography was not allowed. Is this normal for non-temple weddings? If so whats the reasoning?
that there is something beautiful, wholesome, or of good report about having a civil wedding instead of getting married in the temple wearing ridiculous cult costumes including bizarre head coverings, which you can top with a wedding dress if you are insane.
There are many buildings around the world that don't allow photographs to be taken. It just depends on where and what was being photographed. Usually photographs can be taken outside a religious building, but not inside. That's true for other kinds of buildings.
Thousands of pictures are taken of LDS Temples (on the outside but not the inside) once it's been dedicated. Often the whole family is positioned for photographs outside a temple following a "sealing ceremony", in the US.
In the UK, I presume the same policy of photographs outside the building is acceptable at certain times and places.
including a video. It may not be accepted now, but it was done when one of our family members got married. The whole ceremony is on video. Plus hundreds of pictures in the chapel, outside the chapel, and in the recreational hall -- all of it was decorated.
All Protestant churches that I know of allow pictures during the wedding but prefer it wait til after. At mine there were some before and audio during and pictures after. Mormons just don't want anyone to see how beautiful a church wedding can be- with flowers, many people and excitement, music, etc. They really are the losers.
Since photos aren't allowed in the temple, they wouldn't want to have them in the wardhouse because it would give the wedding a air of normalcy and show how there's some slight advange to not going to the temple.
YES THIS IS NORMAL AT A WEDDING It is possible that they were under contract to a professional wedding photographer and that the contract stipulates " no other phtographs until the contracted photos are completed". This keeps the snapshooters fron stealing the professional set ups done by the contract photographer. I shot weddings for many years and that was always a stipulation of my contract. It has nothing to do with the religion
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2012 01:38PM by thedesertrat1.
There are some wedding that are in facilities that do not allow photography, but that is made known to guests BEFORE hand in a discrete way, not over a loud speaker.
This was normal practice in the stake I attended,one mother of the bride threatened to take her daughters wedding somewhere where they would be allowed to take photos and video the ceremony,she backed out,never knew any weddings photographed in any meeting house in my 30 years a member,this was in scotland.
I'm amazed you went to a wedding in the chapel. The last one of those I heard of was about 40 years ago.
They put a stop to it. You could get married in the bishops office or the RS room but not the chapel.
I have always been told no photography in the chapel. I have seen people make people stop taking a pic of their child or whatever because it was in the chapel. The lame reason I was given is because they think that someday all chapels will become places where temple work is done, so they don't want them photographed. I'm serious. I was told that they thought there would be so many doing temple work that they would have travel trailers that went around the country like a traveling temple. The people who told me this really believed it. Just another crazy member teaching.
This wedding was in the UK where a Temple marriage is not legal. A civil ceremony is required before the couple go to the temple. In fact the Temple asks to see the marriage certificate. Most of the time both ceremonies are held on the same day, with a mad dash to the London or Preston temple. This means most of the ward turns out to see the couple get married and the chapel is the best place to accommodate everyone. There are flowers, signing, readings etc, just like in any other wedding. For UK mormons there is no shame in a civil ceremony especially when the couple is Temple bound and it would be a brave Bishop indeed who would stop a couple from marrying in the chapel.
They should be letting people in the U.S. do that. It would eliminate so much heart break, not to mention breaking up families over the whole deal. Their chapels aren't as special as they like to make them out to be. As a florist I have to tell you It would cost a fortune to try and make that plain boring room look good for a wedding. However, much easier than the gym.
It can be pretty distracting to have numerous people snapping pictures, especially with flash, during a wedding. If I were being married, I wouldn't want it. I would want pictures, but I wouldn't want random people vying for a good position to get a snapshot.
I got lucky. I was married in a Mormon chapel so my whole family was able to attend. I had a new bishop who didn't realize about not having weddings in the chapel rule. We were not allowed to take pictures in the chapel but they announced it before the wedding started.
My photographer, who is tbm, took video of me walking down the back aisle by recording in the hallway from the other chapel door. I didn't get my ceremony on video but I was just super excited that my whole family saw me get married.
Certainly in the ward I attended photographs were allowed everwhere EXCEPT the chapel - unless you count the times we had SLC cameramen over for videos...
(if anyone is lurking from my ward they'll now know exactly who I am which is strangely liberating and sad all at once)
I have done it myself I was the photographer and I was told not to take photos. I told off the person that told me that saying that the chapel is used for other things than just a closed off relegionus building and a wedding is a very public ocatjon so I was geetting all the snaps I could afford to.