well when I got married to a dub many years ago we lived in Quebec. Now the law in Quebec would not permit the JWs to perform a marriage. Most JWs had cars and drove across the border and got married in Ontario. We had no car. So...
On Friday night we had a United Church minister come to my mother's apartment and marry us. We had family only and just the ceremony and then everyone left. The best man and Maid of honor and the "happy" couple went out for pizza.
Then he took me home. Although we were legally married we were not allowed to sleep together until we had the JW wedding the next day.
Hold on it gets worse.
I barely knew this person. My mother arranged the marriage, the date, the reception, everything. I borrowed a dress from one person. And a veil from someone else. He didn't have a suit so wore white pants and a black jacket. My mother showed up in a red dress that made her look like a hooker and my little sister wore a white pantsuit. At least my brothers had long pants and white shirts on.
yes it gets even worse
We had no money. So the wedding was pot luck which actually was pretty nice. It was held the week after the district assembly (so he could be baptized) so a lot of people didn't come. Since we had no money we had the reception in my mother's and uncle's apartments. We lived on the third floor and he lived on the second floor. The food and talk was in my mother's apartment and the dancing was downstairs. So all night long we were up and down the stairs making sure we got to talk to everyone. Most of the time we were in different apartments or passed each other in the hall
bad enough... still worse
We didn't think about a wedding cake so the morning of the wedding my mother realizes we forgot to get a cake and goes to the grocery store and orders one. Flat.
She had made some rice wine so served that. It actually wasn't bad. One of the teens got into the booze and was out on the balcony drinking - caused quite a stir and we got reprimanded for it.
We didn't have money for a honeymoon or even a hotel for the night so we were just going to go to our new home (in the basement of his parents home). My aunt (Mouthy's daughter - sweet soul) went to her place and fixed it up. She came back to the reception and handed us her keys and let us use her place for the night.
and the absolute worst.
Next morning his mother called crying begging for her son to come home
Note the above wedding was first "arranged/proposed" on June 27 1970. On Aug 1 we were at a district convention and got married Aug 8 1970 - a scant 5 weeks for this marriage to a stranger
