Originally Posted by TimothyH

Weddings don't "prove your love" to your spouse. Daily self-sacrifice proves your love to your spouse. Putting your spouses needs and wants before your own on a daily basis proves your love. Proving your love is not what a wedding is for.

When performed in the Church before God, a wedding is a covenant between man, woman and God. Covenants form family bonds and last forever, until one member of the covenant dies. In this context a wedding forms an inseperable, familial bond. That is what a sacramental wedding in a Church is for.

When you get married at the beach or in a hall you don't have a sacrament or a covenant but you have a promise. When you get married in a civil ceremony you have a legal contract. In these contexts, promises and contracts are what weddings are for.

I realize that not all agree but for some, getting married in a Church where a sacramental bond between man, woman and God is formed is very important. Whether the service is boring or seems lame or not has zero bearing fact that the bond is established, nor does it diminish the importance of what takes place.

Proving your love happens after the wedding, when it is 36° and raining, you are tired after work, but you let your wife stay home and you go out to get milk.


-Tim-