Wedding Firsts and Creative Couples

 After more than a dozen years of officiating weddings, it’s always a surprise when something new comes up. Just recently more than once I found myself saying, “Well that’s a first!”

Pregnant brides are definitely not a first. We’ve had many expectant couples as well as those with older children acting as ring bearers and flower girls and/or bridesmaids and groomsmen. However, this particular pregnant bride, stricken with morning sickness, poor dear, found it necessary to keep a waste basket handy throughout the ceremony, just in case. Okay I hadn’t run into that before. Fortunately, she got through her vows while holding onto the contents of her stomach. Hopefully her queasiness will subside long before the joy of being a newlywed becomes normal everyday married life. (Better yet, we can always hope the joy of the honeymoon will last forever, especially after the first trimester!)  And speaking of joy, I believe it was at that same wedding in which I encountered another first:  the groom’s mom let out a joyful “WHOOP!” when I pronounced the couple married. I hope it didn’t startle the massage client in the office next door. But at least it was a happy sound.

I've seen some unique rings, but none more so than the skull ring one groom wore. was also a first. I say hey whatever floats your boat. If you and the bride like it, I like it!

Then there was the planning session of the upcoming ceremony with a couple, who requested that after I ask them the “I do” question, I add one more question:  “Do you pinky swear?” Apparently it was a private joke they often tossed back and forth between them. They had even given one another pinky commitment rings. Well that’s a new one on me, but if that’s what they wanted, I told them, sure, why not? It reminded me of another wedding in which the couple wanted me to follow up the “I do” question with, “Is that your final answer?” Sure, why not, I say. I’m all for firsts of any kind when it comes to love and creativity, and a couple wanting to commit the rest of their lives to one another. After all, creativity and humor are good ingredients to a long-lasting bond.

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