Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 303, A Traditional Wedding.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 303.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development.
It has some additional premium courses in daily conversational English and business English.
You can also take a look at our English Through Stories mystery, Deadly Letters.
This episode is about a traditional wedding that you would find in the United States.
Let's get started.
I arrived at my friend Karen's wedding a little late and the ceremony had already begun.
I've been to a lot of civil ceremonies, but it had been a while since I had attended a religious one.
They had asked a minister to officiate.
When I arrived, Karen and her fiancé, Jan, were standing in front of the church.
We are gathered here today to join Jan and Karen in holy matrimony.
If there is anyone here who knows of a reason why these two should not be joined in marriage, Speak now or forever.
Hold your peace.
Fortunately, no one said anything.
Jan and Karen, please face each other and join hands.
Do you, Jan Casanova, take Karen Valentine to be your lawfully wedded wife to have and to hold, to love and to cherish for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death?
Do you part?
Jan said, I do.
And the minister asked Karen the same question.
And she said, I do as well.
May I have the rings?
Yes.
Jan put the ring on the fourth finger of Karen's left hand.
Karen said the same thing and put a ring on Jan's finger.
I now pronounce you husband and wife.
You may now kiss the bride.
Jan and Karen kissed, and we all applauded.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to present to you for the very first time the happy couple, Jan and Karen.
In this episode, we are at a wedding ceremony. what we would call a traditional wedding.
It may also be called a church wedding that you would see in a Christian church.
Of course, those in other religious traditions would have a somewhat different wedding.
But this is the sort of wedding that you would see in the movies, a traditional church wedding.
The woman in the story says that she arrived at her friend Karen's wedding a little late.
The wedding, of course, is the ceremony, the act of getting married, when two people get married.
The person in our story says that she has been to a lot of civil ceremonies, but it had been a while since she attended a religious one.
There's two ways of getting married in the United States.
One is to get married by a recognized priest, minister, rabbi, a religious leader.
The other way is by a civil ceremony.
Civil, C-I-V-I-L, here means government.
It's not a religious ceremony.
This is a judge or someone who is legally recognized to have the power to marry you.
Every state is different in terms of its laws and rules.
But all states have the option, the availability of getting married just by the government.
Now, if you get married in a church in the United States or a synagogue or other religious organization, you still have to get a license from the government.
But you don't have to have two different weddings a church wedding and then a government or civil wedding.
The government recognizes church weddings as legal as long as you get a license from the county where you are living, the state in which you are living.
Most marriages, most weddings are church weddings in the United States.
About 30 to 40 of all weddings are civil ceremonies, with a justice of the peace, a judge, marrying you, often in a government building, but not necessarily.
You can get married anywhere.
In this case, the wedding has a minister, and the minister is officiating at the wedding.
A minister is a religious leader in a Christian church, usually, similar to a priest.
To officiate means to lead the wedding, to be in charge of the ceremony, the wedding ceremony.
When she arrives, Karen and her fiancé, Jan, were standing in front of the church.
Your fiancé is the man or woman that you are promised to in marriage, that you are going to get married to.
If it's a man, it's spelled F-I-A-N-C-E with an accent over the E. It's a French word originally.
If it's a woman, there are two E's at the end of the word.
F-I-A-N-C-E-E.
So your fiancé is the person that you are engaged to. the person you are going to marry.
The minister begins the ceremony in a very traditional way, using expressions that you will hear in the movie sometimes.
We are gathered here together, we are here together, to join Jan and Karen in holy matrimony.
To join, in this case, means to bring two people together, to marry them.
Holy matrimony is another word for marriage.
Holy, H-O-L-Y, means sacred, blessed by God.
Matrimony is another word for marriage.
So holy matrimony is a marriage approved by or blessed by God.
If there is anyone here who knows of a reason why these two should not be joined in marriage...
Speak now or forever hold your peace.
Again, this is very traditional wording.
If there is anyone who has some reason why these two people should not be married, speak now.
Say something now or forever.
Hold your peace.
To hold your peace means never to say anything about something, to remain quiet about your feelings or thoughts about this subject.
Again, it's a traditional expression that you hear at weddings.
Speak now or forever hold your peace.
Unfortunately, no one said anything.
No one ever says anything.
Only in the movies will someone say, no, they can't be married.
I love her.
Something like that.
The minister says, Jan and Karen, please face each other and join hands.
To face each other means to turn and to look at each other so that your bodies are parallel.
You are looking into each other's eyes.
Then the minister says to Jan Do you, Jan Casanova, take Karen Valentine to be your lawfully wedded wife?
Lawfully just means legally.
Wedded is another word for married.
So do you take her to be your lawfully wedded wife?
Do you agree to have her as your wife?
The minister continues, To have and to hold...
To have and to hold means to own, to possess, to keep.
He continues, to love and to cherish.
To cherish, C-H-E-R-I-S-H, is to love, to take care of something.
For better or for worse...
So he's saying good times, bad times if you're rich, if you're poor, if you're sick, if you're healthy, it doesn't matter.
She will be your wife.
The final part of the expression is till death do you part.
Till means the same as until.
To part means to separate.
So the expression, till death do you part, means until one of you dies.
After you die, then you don't have to worry about being married.
Some people say you die when you get married, but I'm not saying that.
So the minister says to Jan do you, Jan Casanova, take Karen Valentine to be your lawfully wedded wife to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death?
Do you part?
Jan says, I do.
That's what you say when the minister, priest, or justice of the peace asks you this question.
You say, I do.
You don't normally say yes.
You say, I do.
The minister then asks Karen the same question, and she said, I do.
The minister then says, may I have the rings?
In a traditional wedding, the man and the woman each have a ring on their finger.
That signifies that they are married.
The minister says to Jan, please place this ring, a symbol of your love, on Karen's hand.
A symbol is a thing or image that represents something else.
So the ring is a symbol of your love.
The minister tells Jan to say to Karen, With this ring, I thee wed.
With this ring, this wedding ring, I thee, T-H-E-E, wed.
Thee is an old word meaning you.
To wed means to marry.
Again, it's an old traditional expression or phrase.
With this ring, I thee wed.
I am marrying you and I am giving you this ring as a sign or symbol of that.
Jan puts the ring on Karen's left hand, on her fourth finger.
Karen says the same thing to Jan and puts it on his finger.
The minister then says, I now pronounce you husband and wife.
I now pronounce means I am now saying, I am announcing, I am making it true that you are husband and wife.
A more traditional expression that you may hear also is man and wife.
I now pronounce you man and wife. more modern version would be husband and wife.
He then says to Jan, you may now kiss the bride.
And that is, again, a traditional thing.
And if the woman in an old-fashioned wedding is wearing or a very traditional wedding is wearing a veil, something that covers her face, she would lift that up and then they would kiss and everyone would clap.
Everyone would applaud.
To applaud or to clap is to put your hands together like that.
That's to applaud.
The minister at the end says ladies and gentlemen, It is my great honor, it is my great privilege, something that I am proud of.
It is my great honor to present to you for the very first time the happy couple Jan and Karen.
It's also possible for the minister to say Mr and Mrs Jan Casanova, if the woman is going to take the last name of the man.
And almost all women in the U.S. do take their husband's last name when they get married.
Not all, however, but the majority do.
Now let's listen to our dialogue this time at a normal speed.
I arrived at my friend Karen's wedding a little late and the ceremony had already begun.
I've been to a lot of civil ceremonies, but it had been a while since I'd attended a religious one.
They had asked a minister to officiate.
When I arrived, Karen and her fiance, Jan, were standing in front of the church.
We are gathered here today to join Jan and Karen in holy matrimony.
If there is anyone here who knows of a reason why these two should not be joined in marriage, speak now or forever.
Hold your peace.
Fortunately, no one said anything.
Jan and Karen, please face each other and join hands.
Do you, Jan Casanova, take Karen Valentine to be your lawfully wedded wife to have and to hold, to love and to cherish for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death?
Do you part?
May I have the rings?
Please place this ring, a symbol of your love, on Karen's hand and say, With this ring I thee wed.
Jan put the ring on the fourth finger of Karen's left hand.
Karen said the same thing and put a ring on Jan's finger.
I now pronounce you husband and wife.
You may now kiss the bride.
Jan and Karen kissed and we all applauded.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to present to you for the very first time the happy couple, Jan and Karen.
The script for this episode was written by the happily married Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2007.
