I’m not sure I’m really the marrying kind (and I’m almost surely not the church-marrying kind), but this article makes me want a big church wedding. And it makes me want to wear Stephanie Seymour’s dress from this, but with more cleavage. (If only I had legs like Stephanie Seymour. Also boobs).
The article, titled “How Brides Should Dress,” is a missive by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. Here’s part of what he says:
A reader from Westminster, in England, points out that white is the usual color in the Western world because it usually signified the bride’s virginity. For this reason, in most Western cultures, a widow entering a second marriage would almost invariably eschew the formal bridal gown for simpler attire.
Our reader points out that in today’s world: “many brides come to the altar after a long period of cohabitation, often after bearing children.” The reader thus recommends that priests should encourage brides who arrive at marriage in this state to choose a less formal dress “out of modesty and honesty for herself, and through charity to those brides who approach their marriages in a pure state, that their traditional symbolic dress may not be debased or usurped.”
I certainly agree in principle and indeed numerous dioceses and parishes have regulations regarding couples who ask for marriage in irregular situations. Dioceses and parishes often recommend that the couples prefer a less solemn wedding celebration both out of respect for Church teaching and as a gesture of penance for their failings.
Call me immature, but I would totally favor debasing and usurping the dress of sanctimonious pricks who think that the only moral and “pure” women are ones with intact hymens. Especially if they think that a wedding should be an opportunity for a bride to pay penance for her slutitude.