Some Thoughts on the Royal Wedding and Marriage in General

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks or cut off from the rest of the world, you probably heard about the royal wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton in England. We both know that the couple has spent loads of money on their wedding. There has been a lot of publicity regarding this wedding. This makes one wonder why so much money should be spent on a wedding and is it ever possible for one to have a simple wedding? With this in mind, everyone, especially those that are married, will take to heart one simple phrase which I learned from my parents when they did Engaged Encounter weekends when I was younger:

A WEDDING is for a DAY, A MARRIAGE IS FOR A LIFETIME

Granted, it varies culturally how much financial resource is acceptable to be spent on a wedding, but a wedding can be simple. All that is needed for the Sacrament of Marriage is a man, the groom, a woman, the bride, and a witness, which can be a deacon or priest. The man and the woman are the ministers of the sacrament and the deacon or priest is the witness. Nothing else is needed: no guests (although you should at least have family with you like the mother and father of the bride and groom), no organ, no fancy wedding dress for the bride or tuxedo for the groom (although a dress for the bride and a suit, at least, for the groom are preferred), none of that extra stuff. People complain that a wedding in the church is too expensive or they rush marriage too quickly, giving rise to things like outdoor weddings (which can be more expensive and who WOULDN'T want to get married in a church, before God) or Las Vegas-style weddings, done before a "Justice of the Peace" (where the State recognizes the "Marriage", but the marriage is still not valid in the eyes of God). Cultural feelings toward weddings force couples planning a wedding to spend more than they need, which can cause problems in a marriage later on.

As I said before, a Marriage is for a LIFETIME! In the marriage vows, the phrase "until death do us part" is there for a reason. When when the man and woman say this, they vow, before God, that they will stay together for ALL times, whether they be good times or bad times. Only when a spouse dies is the other spouse still living allowed to wed again and be married to another. This is because the wedding vows made before God have been fulfilled and you are no longer bound by them (although you can still follow them if you want). If William and Kate live out those vows for their lifetimes, that will be an example for which all that are married can follow.

I think the Media treats the sacrament of marriage as if it were a game and the rules of the game are governed by the government and based on one's feelings. It goes something like this: Famous Man is wed to Famous Woman, Media creates a lot of buzz about the wedding, Famous Man and Famous Woman are happy with their marriage for a while, Famous Man and Famous Woman have children, Media gets all excited, Something happens to either Famous Man or Famous Woman and marriage starts to falls apart, Media (which should stay out of this) "reports" on the marriage troubles, People start to gossip about it, Marriage falls apart and either Famous Man or Famous Woman files for divorce, Either Famous Man or Famous Woman start dating again while their divorced spouse is still alive, Famous Man or Famous Woman still dating decides to get married again while spouse is still alive, wash, rinse, repeat

Those preparing for marriage: don't rush things and make sure that the one you wish to marry is really "the One". If things are rushed, things are more likely to not work out in the marriage. Cohabitation is NOT AN OPTION (it's also a mortal sin), as it ruins things and makes the marriage more likely to fail. Married couples: please stick with your spouse no matter how bad it gets. If we are getting into issues like domestic violence and other like issues, that is a topic for another day. Two of the big parts of marriage are Faithfulness and Compromise. If a couple is faithful to each other, trust builds between the two of you and you can trust each other with more important matters. With compromise, both minds don't always think alike, so you will both be happy if you can find a middle ground and agree with each other. Always keep these two ideas in mind and they will help you to have a successful marriage.

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