Yup, 60s and 70s. Bride had two bouquets and walked one over to the BVM’s altar and placed one there. Problem is most churches don’t have BVM’s altar and in others…try and find her statue.
Close. The foot washing ceremony WILL be out of place because the symbolism points to the Sacrament of Holy Orders, not the Sacrament of Matrimony.
I don’t think placing a bouquet at the statue of Mary has ever gone out of style. I can only think of ONE Catholic wedding I’ve attended in my life time that the bride didn’t do this tradition and that was my SIL’s about 10 years ago. I think it was first question most people asked me when I announced we were getting married and having a nuptial mass.Yup, 60s and 70s. Bride had two bouquets and walked one over to the BVM’s altar and placed one there. Problem is most churches don’t have BVM’s altar and in others…try and find her statue.
What’s the sand thing? Never saw that…thank goodness.
Oh yes, you are right. My mistake I thought we were just talking about Catholic weddings.
LOL I got married (90s) in a beautiful new Church that did have a Mary altary - right in front. But the pastor, at our very first meeting, told us in no uncertain terms that there would not be a presentation of flowers during the Mass. Instead, he suggested that we include an arrangement for the Mary altar in our order for flowers for the Church and print the dedication in the program. Which we happily did. [we hadn’t asked about the flower presentation but I guess he got enough such requests that he was pre-emptive]Yup, 60s and 70s. Bride had two bouquets and walked one over to the BVM’s altar and placed one there. Problem is most churches don’t have BVM’s altar and in others…try and find her statue.
Realistically, I think it is contrived maybe not for all but a majority. I cannot imagine a man going to the woman he is planning to marry and saying…“It has always been my dream to wash my wife’s feet on the altar/reception when I marry.”
There is also the possibility that the gesture was something planned between the couple. And I am beginning to see here that for the most part a foot washing ceremony in the wedding ceremony might be out of place. However at the beginning of the posts to this thread someone linked a blog with a foot washing ceremony in the reception.
yes, though this thread is primarily aimed at catholic weddings. In the beginnging of the thread one poster linked a blog with a foot washing ceremony at the reception and not in the actualy ceremony. Perhaps this was done for the very reason that there is already a foot washing ceremony in the catholic mass at a certain part of the year.
Hrm, that’s a bit weird. At least to me. I got married in a very conservative church by an Opus Dei cooperating priest and he definitely encouraged us to place flowers at Mary’s altar. Enjoyed that quite a bit and the part where my wife nearly fell as she walked back up the stairs to the main altar, but I caught her with my left arm. My first chance to save her!
If a bride was so inclinded to do it in my present church where there are no side altars, she’d have to walk back down the main aisle and present it to a statue immediately to the left of the exit. And the statue is about 2 1/2 feet high.
Gestures made before or after Mass are liturgically less problematic than adding something during the Mass itself. When I see a “unity candle” these days, it is almost always done in the context of the processional or recessional.If a bride was so inclinded to do it in my present church where there are no side altars, she’d have to walk back down the main aisle and present it to a statue immediately to the left of the exit. And the statue is about 2 1/2 feet high.
Never heard of it until I came to these boards. It’s certainly not something that was common where I grew up.
My friends, Matt and Wendy, did a foot washing ceremony at the reception in place of the garter and flower throwing.
Is it possible to punt the flower and garter throwing and replace it with…nothing?
I agree. I can’t imagine watching someone wash their lovers feet. Sorry, it just seems very over the top.Is it possible to punt the flower and garter throwing and replace it with…nothing?
Forgive me for being cynical, but I really don’t see a pair of lovers washing each other’s feet as being the same as a religious authority doing the same for his followers. If anything, the symbolism that comes across in the latter case is that nobody else gets to wash the feet of the bridal pair, not that that no one else would be willing to take on the “menial” task of washing the feet of a person as happy and splendidly groomed (to the toenails, I dare say) as the bride or the groom.
Now, if they decide to wash each other’s feet at the reception when they celebrate 50 years of marriage, that would be something else again!!
I guess I just do not want to know what is going to result when this practice goes the way that cutting the cake already has…that is, what is the foot-washing equivalent of “playfully” pushing cake into your brand new spouse’s face?
Again: think of what has happened to cutting a cake! Do not take this sacred ritual outside of church, lest a mockery be made of it by those who have had to make a mockery of everything else that happens at a wedding reception. Let the couple serve each other for a lifetime, when there is no audience and it is not fun and the world’s idea of “rights” says to do otherwise. That is what the foot-washing of Holy Thursday is meant to engender.