“Fun Facts Saturday”
Wedding Ring Tradition
- Wedding rings date back 3000 years to Ancient Egypt, then to Ancient Greece and Rome, then to Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern Europe.
- Generally, wedding rings were mostly worn by women. During WWII, men started wearing weddings rings in remembrance of their wives back home.
- Rings were placed on the fourth finger of the left hand because of the belief that a vein in this finger came directly from the heart.
- Christian ceremonies adopted the phrase: “With this ring I thee wed.”
Judicial Weddings
As a judge, I officiated at dozens of weddings.
Weddings are rarely flawless. Murphy’s Law, that “if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong,” applies to wedding ceremonies.
Most glitches involve the wedding rings. Typically, both rings don’t fit because the bride or groom have swollen fingers.
The Invisible Wedding Ring
I performed a wedding at the Chart House Restaurant overlooking scenic Dana Point Harbor. The child ring bearer dropped the ring in the tall grass. We could not find it.
I finally reached down, and pretended to pick up the ring. I then “pantomimed” the ring exchange using my invisible ring, and holding my hand in such a way to block the view. I chuckled inside as the guests squinted to get a peek at the ring.
The Frustrated and Angry Child Ring Bearer
During one wedding, the four-year-old ring bearer dropped the ring. The audience chuckled. After picking up the ring, the ring bearer turned to the audience, put his hands on his hips and yelled, “You people stop laughing at me.” That caused even more laughter, which frustrated the little ring bearer even more.
The Best Man Forgot the Ring
During another wedding, I reached for the best man to hand me the bride’s wedding ring. The expression on his face revealed that he had forgotten the ring. Without skipping a beat, he discretely removed his own wedding band and handed it to me. I used the best man’s wedding band as the bride’s ring during the exchange.
The Cracker Jacks Ring
I performed a wedding ceremony where there were six groomsmen. When I reached for the best man to hand me the bride’s ring, he overtly patted down all his pockets. Nothing. He shrugged his shoulders and turned to the first groomsman.
The first groomsman searched through all of his pockets. Finding no ring, he shrugged, and turned to the second groom’s man.
Each groomsman, in turn, searched for the ring, shrugged, and then turned to the next groomsman.
While this was going on, the angry bride whispered to the groom, “I’m going to kill you for this.” The groom sheepishly replied, “I didn’t know anything about this.”
Finally, the last groomsman removed a box of Cracker Jacks from inside his coat. He passed it up the line to the best man.
The best man opened the box, poured the peanuts and caramel corn onto the ground, and reached down and retrieved the white paper prize. He tore open the prize, took out the wedding ring, and handed it to me, for the ring exchange.
The audience love it. But the bride was not happy.
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