The church agreed with me that we should officiate the wedding under the auspices of the church, hear the couples’ vows, make them sign written copies of their vows. The church issued its own marriage certificate to the couple.
We just got a text message with a “Thank you” from them, and telling us they are having a wonderful time. Neither had ever stayed in a hotel before. My wife and I reserved them a very nice room in a four-star hotel as our wedding gift to them — they are just like our own children.
When they can do so, they will travel to their home province and register their marriage. That is all it is in China anyway, a registration; no vows, affirmations or promises about anything.
This is a Christian couple. They wanted the church involved in their wedding. The church (and, we believe, the Lord) considers the couple husband and wife from TODAY, when they made their vows to God and to each other with the entire church body as a corporate witness. Every church member in attendance signed as a witness to their making their vows.
The vows they made today are more stringent than the vows taken by 98% of Americans who wed, unless Mormons have more stringent vows peculiar to the doctrine of the LDS. If you'd like, I can post the vows that they made.
Thanks for sharing the story. That is wonderful that they wanted the church in their wedding.
I visited the USSR in 1985. We kept seeing couples on their wedding day standing by memorials that consisted of guns, tanks, and other symbols of war. That was the tradition, register the marriage with the local Communist office, and then have wedding pictures taken by the symbols of the Great Defeat of the Fascist Hordes from the West. We all thought that was pretty sad. Church weddings weren’t allowed at that time.
That’s a lovely story. I hope the Chinese couple will be very happy together. I’d be very interested to see their vows, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble for you to post.
Are Chinese civil marriages an enforceable contract, or is it like the U.S., where one spouse can decide to end the marriage but still make the second spouse support her (or one can end the marriage, and leave the other with the children and no support.)?