Weddings have changed a bunch in the last half century or so. We just got back from Middle Tennessee where we attended a large wedding in a church in a suburb of Nashville. The bride is my wife's second cousin. Weddings still involve a lot of overdressed people seeing friends and relatives that they haven't seen since the last wedding. There are young guys strutting around in their first(probably) tuxedo, and old ladies with young faces painted on. This one had several uniformed policemen, since the groom is a cop. A blonde lady sang a few solos. There was a slide show about the life histories of the happy couple. There were two wedding cakes, sugar coated almonds, chicken wings, vegetables, crying babies, pictures, pictures, pictures. They handed out little silver bells for everybody to ring when the bride and groom came into the reception. The preacher looked more like a car salesman that a preacher. But then, what do preachers and car salesmen look like? The only member of the wedding party who got sick during the ceremony was the flower girl. The best man and groomsmen stood around grinning as if sharing a little joke. The bridesmaids looked bashful and didn't seem to like the dress they were wearing anyway. No cellphones went off and none of the police officers were paged. I saw some of the wierdest hairdos I've ever seen, and they weren't all on women. Naturally a couple of people showed up dressed a bit too causually. I'm talking jeans and sneakers! They were probably more comfortable than I was in that confounded suit and tie. The air conditioning was a bit cool at first, but transitioned to a bit warm before we got out of there. Maybe I should have said that weddings have changed a little, not a bunch.
Howard