WAITING AT THE CHURCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 3, 4 January 1923, Page 4

WAITING AT THE CHURCH.

COMEDY IN REAL LIFE. GETTING MARRIED FOR CHRISTMAS. A wedding celebrated at one of the Auckland churches just before Christmas was characterised by a series of situations which would have done credit to the most fantastic of comedy plots. It was made notable by no less than three false starts before the harassed couple got properly away with a clear run for the matrimonial stakes, and even then the event was complicated by a vexatious after-event. The first hitch in the process of getting hitched was procrastination on the part of the bride, of whom there was no appearance some very considerable time after the hour set for the event. Parson, bridegroom, and best man fretted and fussed about the altar awaiting the belated lady until the clergyman announced that he had another important engagement to fill and could wait no longer, but promised to return as soon as he could get the other affair off his hands, in an hour or two. He had hardly got beyond call when the bride arrived, much heated and distressed over the delay that had been caused her an others by an obstacle at home. After a korero the party decided to dispatch the best man for another clergyman rather than wait an hour for the one originally engaged, and he see off in a taxi to a distant suburb. Hardly had he got out of sight when the original clergyman turned up smiling, having made a rush job of his other engagement, and it was decided to go ahead with the ceremony in the absence of the best man. This decision, however, was momentarily held up by discovery of the fact that the best man had taken the ring away with him, and there was another delay while a hunt was made for a substitute ring. This -was at last obtained, and the ceremony was proceeding when the best man arrived in time for the original ring to be used for its destined purpose, and the affair ended happily. Some time later the custodian of the vestry came along to lock up, and to make the discovery that a pair of gold sleeve links which was included in the vostrv property was missing, with the result" that a police interrogation was added to the several annoyances suffered by the parties concerned in that particular wedding. It probably did not mitigate their final cross to any great extent to know that there had l>een other weddings in the church the samp day, and a number of other persons shared with them the vexation of inquiries about the missin - ' golden links. Taken all in all there were incidents and omens enough about that wedding to have satisfied the most bloodthirsty village oracle in the superstitious Victorian days, and probably to have turned the affair into a matter of real and lasting unhappiness fo r the principals, instead of just a passing comedy of coincidences providing humour for a good honeymoon laugh.