SILLY WEDDING ANTICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20650, 23 August 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

SILLY WEDDING ANTICS.

* BAN BY CLERGYMEN.

" NO RICE OR OLD BOOTS."

The long practised idiotic antics of wedding guests, who torment brides and grooms with horseplay " jokes," and who generally make the marriage service an occasion for boisterous merrymaking, are rousing many clergymen in England, to action. Vicars in many parts of the country, the Sunday Chroniclo states, are considering what means th'ey can adopt to put a stop to the rowdy scenes, which have attended many recent weddings. Already, at several churches,- requests have been made that guests shall not throw rice at newly-married couples and shall not tie old boots to the backs of the bridal motor-cars. " The way some young people carry on at weddings is perfectly disgusting," a London vicar said a few weeks ago. " The wholo sanctity of tho marriage service is often ruined by their unseemly conduct, and the bride and bridegroom are treated as if they were tho participants of a vulgar joke, instead of tho parties to a serious roligious ceremony. "At a wedding- at my church tho other week a bridegroom was actually struck on the head by a boot., which was hurled after him for so-called ' goodluck.' " His "'honeymoon was spoiled for he sustained a bad cut on tho side of the head and had to receive medical attention. In another inslanco tho back of a bridal car wns severely damaged by over-exuberant motorists."

Another clergyman expressed similar views, and said that ho recalled an instance where a bride had been injured in horseplay by guests following a wedding. " A quantity of rico was thrown," he added, " and otio of her eyes sustained damage which might easily have boon serious."