Secret Mormon Rituals – LDS Weddings and Exchanging Rings
Almost every religion that has the exchanging of rings and a wedding ceremony has some official way that they follow. This is not the case with the Mormon weddings. In fact there is no exchange of rings at all. There is however many of the Mormon couples that want to and will do so in a ring exchange after the ceremony. Basically it is set up in their own ways for doing this because there is no formal doctrine to be followed to give them any guidance as such in the actual wedding.
Exchanging rings at the Temple The actual ceremony itself for the wedding takes place at the Mormon Temple which has a special room for this. The actual wedding ceremony itself is quite short and is referred to as sealing. Now it must be remembered that the union of a man and a woman to become man and wife means for all eternity in the Mormon religion and not just ending when death arrives. Only those that have received the special rights from the Temple can attend the ceremony. Once the ceremony is over those that want to exchange rings can do so themselves. This can be done in the room where the ceremony takes place but it must be emphasized that it is not part of the ceremony itself. Once the sealing has taken place the couples will be asked if they wish to exchange rings. It is only in the sealing room that they may be able to exchange rings while they are on Temple grounds. However once they are off the Mormon temple property they can have a exchanging of rings at their reception for example.
At the reception Again this is a good opportunity if there is going to be a ring exchange. This will often be the case because quite often there will be non-Mormons that are attending the wedding which were not allowed to do so at the Temple. Here they will get the opportunity to see the newlyweds exchange the rings. They also have the opportunity to make more personal vows to each other at this time if either chooses to do so.
During the informal ring ceremony quite often it can be one of the Mormon officials themselves that officiate and will make a statement or it may even be the Father of the bride. This will be a short speech on the eternity of the relationship and what the ring symbolizes and how it fits in with the vows that the couple will remain together forever. It must be remembered that the official sealing of the marriage took place within the Temple. The rings are only for a show of the bond that the two made during the sealing.
Some of these exchanges of rings ceremonies at the reception can be quite nice. It will depend on how formal the couple want to be. Some will have ring bearers who bring the rings to them while others will just carry their partners ring with them and do the exchange at the particular time that they have decided to do this ritual.
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