Manolo for the Brides

A lot of the pre-wedding jitters experienced by brides and grooms revolve around the wedding vows. And is it any wonder? For those ladies and lads not particularly used to public speaking or performing or giving presentations to groups, getting up in front of a mass of people to speak can be a harrowing experience. Personally, I liked it, but I am somewhat of a ham and absolutely love commanding the attention of a group. At the same time, I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I can totally understand the anxiety of wanting to say one’s wedding vows perfectly.

Unfortunately, I didn’t say them perfectly. I was doing all right until I got to a word on my wedding vow crib sheet that I couldn’t read. My usually neat handwriting had devolved into something terrible when I was jotting my notes down the night before. Oops. I stopped mid-sentence. Squinted at my paper. I could sense guests shifting in their seats. But if there was one rule from the theatre that I’ve internalized it would be Roll with your mistakes. So instead of just stammering and moving on, I finished my sentence by saying “…and I can’t read whatever this is supposed to say.” Then I cracked up, giving everyone else permission to laugh at me or with me. Whichever they preferred.

So what happens when you flub your wedding vows? Absolutely nothing if you don’t make a big deal about it. A little slip of the tongue can even make for a more enjoyable wedding ceremony if you let it. For example, here’s a couple whose vows didn’t go exactly as planned, but they had fun with it:

What can brides and grooms learn from my experience and the experience of Mr. Waffle Wedded Wife? How about that it’s okay to experience some wedding vow related anxiety, but that there’s no reason to get overly stressed out about it. Stress, I think, will more often than not contribute to slips of the tongue. In other words, worry too much about saying waffle instead of lawful, and you up your chances of doing just that. Even if you’re planning on a really solemn wedding ceremony, give yourself the freedom to laugh at yourself or your spouse-to-be or the officiant or the bridesmaid who drops her bouquet or the groomsman who trips down the aisle. I guarantee you’ll be glad you did!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 6:41 am and is filed under Fun stuff, Unusual Weddings, Weddings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.