Canadian Wedding

This past weekend, we attended our first Canadian wedding. We were excited about this wedding as the couple getting married is important to us. But we were also anticipating it for several other reasons. Although our Epic Journey was more than we had bargained for, we were, nevertheless, living out of a mini-van for over a month. So, the idea of going to a wedding that we got ready at “home” was comforting. Then there was the anticipation of our first Canadian wedding. We thoroughly enjoyed the event.

We got to the wedding ceremony just as it started (pretty good for an Asian with three daughters). Our friend looked beautiful as she walked down the aisle with her father, and the groom was also dapper in his gray suit – they were already a good looking couple, but the wedding regalia made them look like a royal couple. Of course, this is true of all wedding parties, but I really thought the couple dashing. The ceremony was the shortest I have ever attended – the Pastor’s message was succinct and meaningful, there weren’t a lot of “fluff” in the program, and all things seem to go without a hitch.

As a third culture person, I wanted to find if there were any differences in the ceremony between the ones I’ve attended in the U.S. and in Canada. One thing that caught my eyes was the signing of the marriage license during the ceremony. In the U.S., I’ve seen a lot of wedding ceremonies where the couple light a unity candle. So I thought the signing of the marriage license during the ceremony was a cute thing that my friends did in their wedding to make it unique. After the ceremony, I asked the Pastor, who happens to be a friend of mine, about that and if he knew of any unique things about Canadian weddings. He told me that the signing of the marriage license during the ceremony was one. This was confirmed by my search on the web.

The second thing that I found unique was at the reception. My pastor friend told me that the wedding speeches are unique to Canada. I thought to myself, “In the U.S., the Best Man and the Maid of Honor give a “toast,” and sometimes they have an open mike to let the guests give their ‘speeches,’ so how unique can this be?” The web search did not give any insight to this either. However, when the moderator began the speeches, and as I set through listening to prepared statements from family and friends, I realized this was different. These speeches are not impromptu, but carefully thought through and delivered with love and good form. Then I found the picture of a book below, and others that indicated that this was not just a thing that my friends incorporated into their wedding, but more of a regular occurrence.

All in all, our first Canadian wedding experience was a great one. Lauren and I left the reception with warm hearts and a renewed love for each other.

James