BRIDEGROOM WEPT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17, 21 January 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

BRIDEGROOM WEPT.

MARRUNG experiences.

LONDON VICAR'S RECOLLECTIONS

A London vicar of over twenty years' experience recalls that one Easter Monday he was required to marry two giant policemen to i two sisters. The sisters were remarkably alike, and the policemen were as nervous as kittens. "I showed them their places at the chancel steps, and told them on no account to move," ■writes the vicar in the "Sunday Chronicle." "During the ceremony they managed to get mixed, and the wrong bridegroom led forward the wrong bride at the actual contract point of the service. I was just about to marry the wrong couple, when I asked: 'Are you two the right people?' Shaking with nervousness, the big policeman said: "No, we've got mixed up somehow.' "

A fine buxom woman appeared -with a timid little man, who sobbed bitterly throughout the marriage service. "She towered over him, and her flashing eye caught mine as though to say, 'Now, what do you think of that for a man?' When I asked the little man, TVilt thou have this woman . . . ?' he broke down completely, and buried his face in an enorftous red handkerchief. His dominant bride jvhispered firmly to him, 'Pull yourself together. It "will soon be over.' Curiously, tlie two -were completely happy in after-life. She had a comfortable income, and his greatest delight was to trot after her, laden with her parcels, and leading a dog bigger than himself. I never discovered why he wept on his wedding day."

The most painful problem ever presented to the vicar at an Easter wedding was during the Great War, when a young man answered the question, "Wilt thou have this woman?" by saying, in a loud voice, "I told her mother that six montlis ago." The bride was the only unruffled person in the church. The absent-minded groom made a splendid husband, and from an uncouth recruit he rose to command a battalion in the war.

The vicar had a dog named Peter which was fond of church. At a wedding he had just said the words, "Hear also what St. Peter . . . saith unto them that are married," when, scampering up the aisle, Peter, the dog, rushed to the vicar, wagged his tail delightedly, and gave three resounding barks. To complete the confusion, a loud voice called, "Come here, Peter, you naughty rascal." Peter refused to budge, watched the ceremony through, and trotted ahead of the happy couple when, they went' to sign the register- in the vestry.