In Australia civil marriages are overtaking marriages held in a church. There were 25718 marriages in the last year conducted by marriage celebrants and 14966 religious ceremonies. I did wonder whether this allowed for ceremonies that were conducted by an ordained minister or pastor but were not held in a church but held on a beach or in garden or some other place. Some ministers or pastors will not marry couples outside a church. Others do not have a problem with it.
In my opinion how is God’s creation any less a suitable place to be married than a building built by men? Again it should be an individual decision for the couple taking into account their beliefs and preferences. Our son was married in a church. Our daughter was married in a garden but both were beautiful and very obviously Christian weddings where God was central in all that happened.
This year though in Australia the registry office held the most weddings ever on one day, on the tenth of the tenth of the tenth. On that day 106 couples were married.
Of course it could just be as someone quipped that it is an easy date to remember and the husband is less likely to forget anniversaries. In all the years we have been married Mick has not once forgotten an anniversary. Neither have I and we never had any catchy dates to help us remember, although it was the date we first started ‘going steady’ as it was called in our time, so it did have special significance for us. We even kept the wedding and the time he put the wedding ring on my finger as close as possible to the time he once put the friendship ring on my finger. I still wear both, though I notice the pattern on my friendship ring has faded like its owner.
I wonder how many of you had a special date or significant date for your wedding or did it depend more on availability of church or reception place?
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