Wedding Day Series

Let me share with you some specific bloopers that stand out in my mind.

The Flaming Wedding Dress

In one of my first weddings I learned to ask an important question. I now ask each bride if her dress has long sleeves. Why? In one particular wedding, the bride and groom approached the unity candle and as they were lighting the candle, the bride¡¦s sleeve caught fire. The groom quickly beat out the fire. The bride was unharmed, but as you can tell, the ceremony just wasn¡¦t quite as ¡§special¡¨ from that point on.

The Injured Bride

Because of past experiences the list of questions and advice grow as I perform Weddings. Another important statement I make to the bride and groom during the Wedding Rehearsal is to put hand lotion on their hands when they get home that night and to not force the ring on the finger during the ceremony. In one particular Wedding, as the groom was putting the ring on the bride¡¦s finger I noticed she began to cry. Now for a moment I thought it might have been because the ceremony was so touching, but when I realized that the groom had broken her finger I understood the tears. Naturally she was nervous and so her hands were swollen. As he tried to put the ring on her finger it would not go over the knuckle so he put a little ¡§oomph¡¨ into it and broke her finger. This wasn¡¦t my best ceremony, but the woman¡¦s finger healed nicely and the couple is still happily married although the broken finger thing comes up occasionally.

The ¡§Red-faced¡¨ Preacher

The 30 minutes before the ceremony begins is always one of the most hectic times anyone will ever experience. At this one ceremony the bride, brides maids, and female friends and family were in the bridal room as the bride¡¦s mother come running out asking me if I had a ¡§safety pin¡¨. Apparently someone¡¦s dress strap had broken and so everyone was panic stricken. I quickly found a ¡§safety pin¡¨ in the secretary¡¦s office and knocked on the door of the bridal room. As I knocked I hollered out, ¡§Is everyone dressed?¡¨ as the reply was ¡§Yes, come on in¡¨. To my surprise, the bride and 4 bride¡¦s maids were all standing there in their bras and panties in which I could feel my face turn bright red. As I told the women how I didn¡¦t appreciate them doing that, they replied, ¡§You¡¦re just the preacher¡¨. (I guess preachers don¡¦t think bad thoughts or anything like that, right?) As I went to the sound booth our church¡¦s single Music Minister asked why I was so red and I told him in which he replied, ¡§Pastor I would be more than happy to take care of those sorts of things for you. All you got to do is ask¡¨. Remember I said it is good for us to laugh. In this situation that is about all I could do.

As funny as all of these stories are, (or at least to me they are); I saved the funniest story for last.

The ¡§Red Neck¡¨ Wedding

In the Summer of 2000 a couple came to me and explained that they wanted me to perform their Wedding ceremony. The man was a farmer and the woman had grown up on a farm. They explained to me that this was both of their 2nd marriage and neither one of them had a Church Wedding the first time. They wanted a ¡§Western¡¨ style or as the groom called it a ¡§Red Neck¡¨ Wedding. We set the date for the Wedding in late July.