How big of a deal is Kingdom Hall Weddings ?

by Pitchess Co-Gen 15 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Scully

  They won't allow unbaptized people to use the KH for a wedding. If you are approved to use the KH for your wedding, it's kind of a signal to every JW attending that the couple is In Good Standing™, and both of them are Baptized™ JWs.

  The JW Ministers™ who perform marriage ceremonies for JWs are not obliged to officiate for anyone who asks them to do so. They have been known to refuse if instructed to do so by the Body of Elders™. And it can be for reasons of Public Reproof™, Private Reproof™ or just because they have an axe to grind against the bride or groom or either family.
• 

  Sulla

  Heh. There wouldn't have been a wedding in the Kingdom Hall if they had known...

  Hmmm. Looks like we outsmarted ourselves on that one. All our wedding ceremony pictures are in fluorescent light. I remember the photographer saying, "This place is lit up like a K-Mart."

  Goddamn it! Shoulda told 'em we were fucking like bunnies before the wedding!
• 

  ziddina

  I can understand the desire to get married in a KH so everyone thinks they had the elders' blessings...

  But who would want to get married in a crappy, windowless KH when there are so many other beautiful locations in which to exchange vows???

  2nd hubby [after I disassociated, not a JW] and I had a civil ceremony, then went to Chautauqua Park in Boulder:

  

  

  Seriously, who'd want to be in a KH when you could be here?????
• 

  nuthouse escapee

  Ziddinia, absolutely beautiful pictures. Yup, definitely better than any KH. Leslie
• 

  GLTirebiter

  ... is also to provide a good witness for nonJWs in attendance

  That works no more than once (having been to a half-dozen or so KH weddings as my ex's UBM, I speak from personal experience). Outsiders catch on very quickly that the "wedding talk," rather than being lovingly composed based on a close relationship with the bride and groom, follows a standard script. By the time the last of my ex-in-laws was married, I could tell if the Elder/MS goofed and missed a part.
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  smiddy

  Maybe it depends in what time period you were married in.I was a convert at 19 years of age in 1959 ,converted my then girlfreind , we were both baptized in Nov.1960 and were married in a Kingdom Hall in Febuary 1961 in Melbourne. I took to the" truth" like water takes to a sponge.

  Their were very few Kingdom Halls in Melbourne at that time. The hall we attended at that time was a Masonic hall rented out to the congregation ,everything had to be packed up and put away at the end of our meetings.

  The hall we got married in was a few suburbs away it was called the flemington congregation but was actually in another suburb ,which caused a bit of confusion to some of our guests.

  Neither my wife or I had any relatives at that time who were witnesses ,they were all"worldly" people as we once were .Looking back it was an interesting wedding reception our family hovering around a keg of beer on one side and the witnesses on the other side of the room (some of which I`m sure would have loved to be on the other side )

  I probably put a few peoples nose out of joint even back then .The brother who brought me into the "truth"went to great pains to emphasize how different witnesses were to christendom,one of which witnesses didn`t have a paid clergy , you didn`t have to pay the minister who married you.I took that very seriously,and when it was suggested by our then p.o. that we should compensate the said minister for his services ,I didn`t comply.I thought it was hypocritical .

  Sorry I went off on a tangent ,getting back to your question , yes back then it was a big deal for both me and my wife to be married in a building that represented your faith,a Kingdom Hall.

  smiddy