June Weddings

June 1,2020 (Monday)

Here we are in June. If we picked a symbol of June, it would probably be Wedding Bells. That seems to be a very good month for weddings. As time goes by, trends change and what was true during my life as a pastor for many years may not be the case today. But let me share with you from my wedding records the most popular and least popular months for the weddings I performed over a period of approximately 60 years. From my records, the most popular month was February and the least popular month was October, which according to a recent study is now the most popular month for weddings. February was the wedding month for about 15% of my weddings and October was chosen for only about 6%. The average for each of the remaining 10 months was less than 8%.

June and November tied for 2nd place, and April, March and September were runnerups for the least popular months. If you could see the records for other pastors, they probably would be different.

Anyway, June seems like a good month for weddings. In which month were you married? Wanda and I married in October. My children were married in December, September, August and February. Grandchildren: April, May, July, and October. None in June but our family has gobbled up eight other months. (We still have four unused months: January, March, June, and November). We still have six children and grandchildren with no spouse at present.

I made a few mistakes in ceremonies along the way, like the evening I was still at home when it was time for the wedding, or the night I forgot to pronounce the couple man and wife, and the evening that I completely forgot the last name for the big introduction, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs….” I’ll never forget that. Most of those events took place in my declining years. There probably were many more mistakes, but everybody got married, even though not everyone is still married. At one of my first weddings, in a crowded living room, after the groom kissed the bride, he said, loudly, “How much do I owe you?” as he pulled a $5 bill from his pocket. Embarrassed, I said, “Nothing.” I did not want to appear greedy, but I surely could have used the five dollars at the time.

Marriage is not a simple matter, even though the vows are straight-forward promises to God and to each other. Two things people need to know when they marry: 1. Men crave respect. 2. Women want to feel special to a husband. Everyone coming to the marriage altar should never let the love grow cold.
Go to end of blog for the old “Always” But listen to this beautiful song first