"I do." Do you?

Ever been at a wedding where the preacher says, "If anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in matrimony, let them speak now or forever hold their peace"? 

I remember our pre-wedding rehearsal because the minister said that the period of silence that would follow those words would be the longest period of silence we would ever know.

Well, at our gala nuptials, no one piped up with any objections, and when the sinbuster returned to the Order of Service, that ended the last period of silence Peggy would ever know. Except for when I had laryngitis that one time.

And now, except for Hallmark Movie Channel movies and family hitchin's with shotguns involved, that line is pretty much never mentioned at a wedding.

"It has become obsolete," said Paula Posman, a New York City-based officiant who is the operator of a wedding services company called "A New York Way to Say I Do."

(Are you glad you don't work there and have to answer the phone with, "Good afternoon, A New York Way to Say I Do, how may I help you?")

Posman goes on to say, "You can't object simply because you're in love with the bride. It has to be a legal reason why the couple can't wed."  In other words, just because you're standing there in tears because The Only One You Will Ever Love is marrying the guy who mows her lawn, you can't stop them.  Nor would you really want to.

It worked for him, though.

Posman: "Today, the legal aspects of a wedding are squared away before the couple gets to the altar, so most officiants just don't ask the question."  The couple has their license all filled out, all the i's have been dotted and the t's crossed, so standing there bellowing during the service won't get you anything but thrown out.


But, back in the long-ago, someone might know something about one of the participants being married already, or underage, or having been kidnapped or otherwise forced to the altar, or being too closely related to the person they were fixing to marry...(?)

So if you show up the church begging Grizelda or Wilberforce to change her/his mind and marry you instead, you're too late.  Holler out, and Posman will say, "That's not a legal reason," and keep right on marryin'.

Have fun at the reception, though.