A Military Wedding in the Guards' Chapel, Knightsbridge - Naval Weddings - A Wedding in the

Highlands - Strange Weddings

In the life of every woman there are many important days which are written upon the calendar of memory, and never forgotten when the anniversary of their happening arrives, but of all these, the most important is the wedding-day.

Now, the majority of women like this day to be memorable, not only to themselves, but to everybody else; but when this does happen it is generally the bridegroom who is the prominent person, not the bride.

Are we not all familiar with the phrase, "It's quite the prettiest wedding I've ever seen," used by nine people out of ten who have just come from witnessing a ceremony of marriage, where the bride and her maids are young and fresh and prettily gowned, and the church is decorated with flowers?

The impression is vivid and pleasing while it lasts, but very soon it fades into the dim recesses of memory-land; and as to the bridegroom - well, to him is hardly a thought accorded. But in the weddings which live for a long time in the memory of the beholders all this is changed, the honours are divided.

I mean military, naval, or Highland weddings, where the bridegroom takes his proper place as the hero of the hour, and is attended by the men of his regiment or the gallant sailors of his ship.

There is something about a Service wedding which makes it more interesting to onlookers than an ordinary one. It may be that the sight of the uniforms or the sound of the jingling spurs awakes our dormant patriotism; it certainly is that the brightness and splendour of the men's uniforms among the congregation add to the beauty of the scene. For it is the etiquette of military weddings that all the guests who attend the service come in their uniforms. Of course, many military men are married in mufti- the majority prefer it - but there are many considerations which influence their decision in this matter, paramount among which, putting aside the wishes of the bride-elect, is whether the frock-coat or the tunic will best bear the scrutiny of many eyes.

An Imposing Ceremony

A military wedding is a fine spectacle. The church itself is generally decorated with flowers, while at each side of the aisle, shoulder to shoulder, stand a company of the bridegroom's regiment. At the approach of the bridal party swords are unsheathed or lances raised and crossed over the aisle, making a canopy of steel, under which the little procession wends its way up to the altar, where the bride becomes not only the wife of the man she has chosen, but also "one of the regiment."

Perhaps the most impressive of all these weddings are those which take place at the Guards' Chapel, Knightsbridge, where all the associations and surroundings are military, where the chapel is hung with warworn, time-dimmed flags, each speaking in silent eloquence of the heroes who have fought and fallen in the days gone by, perchance reminding the white-veiled figure with the stalwart soldier at her side that some day she, too, may be called upon to relinquish the man she loves in answer to his country's call.

Naval weddings in uniform are perhaps more rare than military ones, because, as a rule, they only take place at naval stations, where an officer can get the requisite complement of ship's crew to "man the aisle."

The proceedings are very much the same as in military weddings, save that the prevailing tone is blue instead of scarlet, and that the sailors lining the aisle are bearded men instead of boys; also there prevails a custom of having ready a contingent of six or eight seamen, strong of arm and willing of heart, to take the horses from the bride's carriage and themselves draw the conveyance containing the newly-wed husband and wife back to the house.

A naval wedding savours of the sea; there is something about it which seems to exhilarate. There is an atmosphere which naval men carry about with them wherever they go. It is difficult to say from whence it is derived - maybe in the long night watches spent in commune with the stars and their own souls - but it makes them different from other men, broader-minded, more tender-hearted towards women.

Weddings On Board

There was another kind of wedding, now quite out of date owing to steam navigation and rapidity of travel, by which ships' captains were empowered to tie the nuptial knot when voyages were slow and long.

In the time of our great-grandmothers these ship-board weddings were of no uncommon occurrence. In those days, when it took some six months to sail from one side of the globe to the other instead of six weeks, as it does under present circumstances, ships' captains were often the instruments by which seafaring romances were culminated, and a marriage on board ship was by no means one of the least picturesque to be remembered. Here would be no fine wedding garments, no bouquets of white flowers or trailing sprays of smilax, no church save the open sea, no music save the murmuring of the waters, no grand display of weddinggifts, only a few tokens of affection given without ostentation, received with real pleasure; but for all that, those weddings, once witnessed, were never forgotten.

Scottish Weddings

Different, again, is the Scotch wedding, which, as often as not, takes place in the house of the bride's mother or in a hall instead of a church. Up in the Highlands, where the wearing of the national costume is more universal than down in the southern counties, these marriages are most picturesque and partake more of the character of a festivity than a religious ceremony. They generally take place in the evening, and are followed by a supper and dancing in which the newly married pair generally join, leaving the assembly by the last train which can take them away to start on their honeymoon.