quotations about weddings
Like many of you, I've been to several big weddings over the years. There was one in the gorgeous gilt ballroom of a five-star hotel in Washington, D.C., another with a 10-piece band that played overlooking a California bluff, and the three-day affair I secretly dubbed "the wedding that wouldn't end." But the wedding I remember most fondly was a much smaller celebration, held in a backyard on Cape Cod. It rained buckets that August afternoon, so we huddled in a small tent during the ceremony, then took off our shoes and danced in the wet grass. It was a close-friends-and-immediate-family type of festivity, a happily chaotic afternoon, relaxing, and so much fun: the best wedding I've ever been to.
JACI CONRY
"Where (and why) to have a small New England wedding", Boston Globe, January 14, 2016
A wedding is not a wedding without the feast -- the ceremonial extension of celebration to the community, where the meal laid on is not just a feeding but an elaborate and extravagant bacchanal, accompanied by much drinking and the offering of public toasts. Nor is a wedding a wedding without the intensity of sexual consummation in the nuptial bed. Most couples these days are well experienced at sexual intercourse by the time they reach their wedding day. Even so, they do not neglect that special act of coupling on their wedding night, even though they may be tired from dancing and smiling and talking with friends. Here ceremony finally reaches the flesh.
KARL E. SCHEIBE
The Drama of Everyday Life
After paying for the wedding, about the only thing a father has left to give away is the bride.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Music played at weddings always reminds me of the music played for soldiers before they go into battle.
HEINRICH HEINE
Book of Songs
Weddings are also great chances to get to know your neighbors and friends of friends, providing valuable mortar that strengthens the bonds between society's building blocks and aids the development of deeper and stronger social connections.
EDITOR
"Weddings in Laos: mix of culture, tradition, geniality and whiskey", Coastweek, February 6, 2016
Every bride is beautiful. It's like newborn babies or puppies. They can't help it.
EMME ROLLINS
Dear Rockstar
Weddings are great fun unless you are planning one.
EMIL DROZD
"Weddings always featured food, dancing, drinking", Columbus Telegram
Weddings remind us that our lives have meaning and that love is the strongest bond, the happiest joy, and the loveliest healing we can ever experience.
DAPHNE ROSE KINGMA
Weddings from the Heart
The funny thing is that although we place so much energy and importance on our wedding day, it isn't the biggest day of our life. The biggest day of your life is every day thereafter. Because it's not the pledge to love someone that matters, but the act of fulfilling that pledge that is most important.
LAURA WOLF
Diary of a Mad Bride
Instead of focusing on THE day, focus on the relationship that led to it and the lifetime of love and companionship ahead of you both.
BRANDIANNE HINTON
"Wedding is a four-letter word *#&@!", The Port Arthur News, April 14, 2017
The first thing to do when wedding planning seems to be taking over your life is to take a break. Hit pause, put your binder and magazines away, and agree not to talk about your wedding for a full 24 hours. Your love and your marriage? By all means, dream away! But forget about the details and the to-do lists.
JAIMIE MACKEY
"What to Do If Wedding Planning Is Stressing You Out", Brides, April 10, 2017
At every turn, weddings are distillations of deeply held ideas about identities, localities, histories, and the present. Better yet for scholars of cultural practices, these ideas are performed at weddings, enacted on a series of community stages for the community, by the community.
TIMOTHY J. COOLEY
Making Music in the Polish Tatras: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Mountain Musicians
I never did, nor do I believe I ever shall, give advice to a woman who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage; first, because I never could advise one to marry without her own consent; and, secondly, I know it is to no purpose to advise her to refrain when she has obtained it. A woman very rarely asks an opinion or requires advice on such an occasion, till her resolution is formed; and then it is with the hope and expectation of obtaining a sanction, not that she means to be governed by your disapprobation, that she applies.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to Lund Washington, September 20, 1783
Marriage as an institution is thousands of years old. It has changed in its purpose somewhat, but if you go far enough back, it was essentially a way to confer legitimacy on procreation. That is, it was about making sure that a father's son was really his. That's for a lot of reasons, but a big one is for the transfer of property from father to son, bypassing the women in the family entirely, in most cultures. These days, it's about commitment and love and having a great party. It's also about transferring your money to two dozen different vendors who have doubled their normal prices just because you said the word "wedding."
SHANE FERRO
"Why you should never look at Pinterest while planning your wedding", Business Insider, June 4, 2015
It may well be that an analysis of figures would reveal a law -- the duration of a marriage is inversely proportional to the cost of the wedding. Or, to put it another way, any union celebrated with personalized toasting flutes is doomed.
MICHAEL FOLEY
The Age of Absurdity
Always man needs woman for his friend. He needs her clearer vision, her subtler insight, her softer thought, her winged soul, her pure and tender heart. Always woman needs man to be her friend. She needs the vigor of his purpose, the ardor of his will, his calmer judgment, his braver force of action, his reverence and his devotion.
MARY CLEMMER AMES
Outlines of Men, Women, and Things
A wedding was a strange ceremony, she thought, with all those formal words, those solemn vows made by one to another; whereas the real question that should be put to the two people involved was a very simple one. Are you happy with each other? was the only question that should be asked; to which they both should reply, preferably in unison, Yes.
ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party
Weddings are all about love, but the wedding planning part? Well, that's more about decisions and logistics and details ... definitely not romantic!
JAIMIE MACKEY
"What to Do If Wedding Planning Is Stressing You Out", Brides, April 10, 2017
A wedding ring is a symbol of commitment; a promise, a pledge, and a vow. The promise is to forsake all others, to stay devoted and true; the pledge is to honor that promise selflessly, to see the whole thing through; and the vow is to keep that pledge unwaveringly, until the days are few. It is a mutual agreement to become one instead of two.
J. W. LORD
Author of Worlds
If it were not for the presents, an elopement would be preferable.
GEORGE ADE
Forty Modern Fables