What's an 'Unprogrammed' Quaker Wedding?

  A 'Friend' friend of mine is getting married in this tradition. What should I expect? A "Friend" friend of mine is getting married in the Quaker "unprogrammed" tradition. What should I expect? I’m told everyone signs a certain document. Why? What should I wear? Will there be food? Should I bring a gift? Also, I heard my friend and her fiancé went through a "Meeting for Business" to get this wedding OK'd. What was that? I'd ask my friend, but there just hasn’t been a good time for a talk. There are two types of Quaker traditions: “programmed” and “unprogrammed.” During unprogrammed worship, Friends sit in silence and, if moved by divine guidance and inspiration, speak to those assembled. This is called “vocal ministry,” and everyone present--Quaker and non-Quaker--is welcome to participate....

Read more »

Quaker wedding

  Quaker weddings are the traditional ceremony of marriage within the Religious Society of Friends. Quaker marriage in history After the local meeting had approved the couple's intention, an announcement would be made and posted in the market on market day. After this the wedding could take place. Outsiders sometimes criticized Quaker couples for living in adultery because they married each other without priests or ministers. George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, and Margaret Fell married using a modification of this procedure in 1669.[citation needed] Two years later, when Fox was in Barbados, he sent out another epistle. In this epistle, Fox advocated giving women's meetings the initial responsibility to pass on a couple's intentions when the couple had expressed a desire...

Read more »

Wedding

  A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of wedding vows by the couple, presentation of a gift (offering, ring(s), symbolic item, flowers, money), and a public proclamation of marriage by an authority figure or leader. Special wedding garments are often worn, and the ceremony is sometimes followed by a wedding reception. Music, poetry, prayers or readings from Scripture or literature are also optionally incorporated into the ceremony. A number of cultures have adopted the traditional Western custom of the white wedding, in which a bride wears a white wedding dress and...

Read more »