Wedding Inspirations~ Comedy During the Ceremony

Should the Bride Ride to the Ceremony in a Dump Truck?

A little while ago, I went to the doctor who told me  ”The nurse will be right in to give you a shot.” When the nurse entered she instructed me to pull my pants down to which I replied: “I am sure glad I have clean underwear on.” When there was no laughter, I said, “Well I thought it was funny!”  She said: “Sir, I can’t tell you how many times a week I hear that!”

Many couples think that having some kind of outlandish  joke during the ceremony is hilarious…like dad standing with the couple with a shotgun. Forgetting that the ceremony is the place where the couple will say in front of God, their families, their friends and an officiant that they love each other so much and vow to spend their lives together, the ceremony is becoming more and more a place for “shtick.”  I want to interject  here that I am not a prude. In high school, I was voted “Class Cut-up.” Personal friends know that I love telling jokes and funny stories, but doing shtick at the moment in life where we will say in front of God,  families,  friends and an officiant  that we love each other so much that we vow to spend their lives together is not classy.

While the officiant may use some lightheartedness to break the nervousness of the couple or to ease family tensions, nothing more should be added to the ceremony for laughs and giggles.

With that said, I have seen over and over again “Please” on the bottom of the left shoe and “Help” on the bottom of the right. I have seen the bride in combat boots. What befuddles me is that thousands of dollars are spent on tuxedos and gowns, getting the hair done and flowers to make the ceremony formal and beautiful and then there are combat boots on the bride for some kind of vaudevillian joke. (Even more befuddling is the bride without shoes dancing at the reception making her white stockings black on the bottom or the groom with a bottle of beer and only half his tuxedo on.  However, I just want to talk about the ceremony.)

Why at the ceremony do the groom and the groom’s men feel compelled to show us their underwear with their title written on them or the bride feel compelled to answer  “No” to the vows as a joke?  Processing down the aisle to an inappropriate wedding song is not funny not because it included a four-letter-word, but because it ridicules we are all gathered together.

Naturally, invited wedding guests too ought to be on their best behavior. While the ceremony may not take place in a place of worship but in a public park, private home or reception venue, the purpose of the ceremony is still the same….where the couple will say in front of God, their families, their friends and an officiant  that they love each other so much that they vow to spend their lives together. Don’t embarrass the couple with trite or out of line jokes during the ceremony. Comedy acts are best saved for the reception. There is nothing more crass than at a $30,000 wedding for a straight guy to yell out during a same sex wedding ceremony: “ See you after the wedding” or for a guy in the audience to beg the bride not to go through with it.

Leave the wedding ceremony comedy to the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in his “Wedding  Headlines" bit. Thousands are spent to have a classy wedding….keep it that way in every way.

So if you are tempted to write “Please help” on the bottom of your shoes for when you kneel in the ceremony or to hand the minister  many keys to all of your old girlfriend’s houses, remember what the nurse told me when I said I was glad that I had clean underwear on.