Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT: 2392-2396 (25 February- 1 March, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Loki:
As someone who has never been to a wedding, what does a (US-American) wedding traditionally entail?
RedWolf4:
I think I shall emulate Sir Not Appearing In This Movie!! *Gallops off into the sunset.*
sitnspin:
I've only been to three, one of which was my own and none of which were traditional. One was "pagan" handfasting. One was just visiting justice of the peace and I was one of the witnesses. Mine wasn't legally recognized (no same-sex marriage in that state) but involved each of us playing a song for each other (I did a solo acoustic guitar rendition of Nick Cave's "Into My Arms" and she did an original song with her band) and we exchanged vows that we wrote ourselves in front of her priest. After the vows, we did the recessional and everyone adjourned to the reception where much booze was shared.
If movies are anything to go by, traditional weddings involve a processional where the bridesmaids and groomsmen walk in first in pairs, then the groom, then the bride last to the tune of the traditional "Here Comes the Bride". There is often a prayer if it is a religious ceremony, often a song or two is sung by a friend or relative of the couple, then the one officiating it has them repeat the vows and exchange rings followed by a "By the power invested in me by (insert government body or deity here), I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride." Then there is a recessional song played as the newly married couple exits the way they entered except they do so together and everyone stands as they go. Then the bridesmaids and groomsmen exit, then everyone else goes too.
How often it actually matches up with that, I have no idea.
Zebediah:
Weddings come in all shapes and sizes in the US. Most of my family is Catholic, so I've been to many Catholic weddings, which are basically a Mass with a wedding ceremony spliced into the middle of it. On the other end of the scale (for religious ceremonies), Southern Baptists tend to have you in and out of the church in ten minutes.
Non-religious services can range from the very elaborate to the extremely simple. For example of an extraordinarily simple one, while my wife and I were at the courthouse to get our marriage license, there was a couple getting married by a justice of the peace in the room next door. They needed a couple of witnesses, so we got recruited. Never met the people before, haven't seen them since, but our signatures are on their marriage certificate. They seemed happy, so it's all good.
As for wearing white: My wife had been married before and five months pregnant on our wedding day, and she still wore a white dress. Nobody cared except my Dad, and my sisters all ganged up on him and made him behave.
Redball:
The traditional entrance music for the bride is the Bridal Chorus, "Treulich geführt", from Wagner's opera Lohengrin. The traditional recessional, departure, music is Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" part of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I've liked the Mendelssohn since I was a teenager. I was playing it one day when my mother and stepfather had been arguing, and my stepfather snapped at me when the Wedding March music filled the house. He thought I'd played it deliberately. I don't think so.
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