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According to Grammarist, the practice of asking if anyone objects to a marriage during a ceremony dates back to the medieval times.
This phrase is derived from the Christian marriage ceremony and came about because back then communication between distant communities was sparse. So, to combat bigamy, or the practice of marrying multiple people in secret, when a couple planned to marry, the marriage plans were announced to the public for three consecutive Sundays.
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This is how the public could come forward if the groom was already married to someone else. The wedding day was the last chance to hear anyone’s information regarding the illegitimacy of the marriage that was about to take place. The priest was required to state: "If anyone knew why the couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, let him speak now or forever hold his peace".
Nowadays not all officiants follow this practice but it is still commonplace for traditional Christian ceremonies to start this way. Even when someone does object at a wedding, there has to be a legal reason for the objection. According to Livescience, many couples take care of their legal affairs before the wedding day, hence it is unlikely that when an objection is raised, the ceremony will be stopped.
Not many of us have had the (dis)pleasure of attending a wedding where the ceremony didn't quiet go as planned, but those who have share what happened at these awkward weddings.
Here are 6 accounts of when a wedding guest decided not to 'forever hold their peace':
In a Reddit post, a user shared how her parents invited her mother’s ex to their wedding.
“My mom invited her ex she was still rather close with to her wedding. He stood up and yelled ‘I object’. Little did everyone at the wedding know, my dad had gotten rather close with him and paid him to stand up and object, just for laughs,” says the user.
The groom and the ex thought it was a fun prank. Needless to say, the bride didn’t find it as funny as the groom had hoped. Fortunately, the bride wasn't upset enough to stop the wedding and the ceremony went ahead after the awkward moment.
2 - The groom who fell out of love
A Twentytwowords user shared how one groom objected at his own wedding. The groom stood up at the alter and started crying, and, in front of everyone, told the bride that he had fallen out of love with her a while before but hadn't known how to break it off.
They both stepped out, but then 10 minutes later came back and got married because she'd apparently told him she was pregnant. According to the user, the couple is still married, and they now have three children. The wife, the user says, is having an affair and the marriage is quite unhappy.
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3 - The ex who thought the groom was just trying to teach her a lesson by marrying someone else
Some wedding guests do not bother waiting for the officiant to ask if anyone wishes to object.
They just go ahead and pour their hearts out, as this Buzzfeed user witnessed at one wedding. The groom’s ex decided to get up and scream that he was her soulmate, that she forgave him for “this whole thing”, and they should leave now because he’d proven his point.
He had broken up with her five years prior and the ex thought he was just trying to teach her a lesson by marrying someone else. How bizarre? The guest who shared this story says he got very drunk just to get though the awkward affair.
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4 - The maid of (dis)honour
Another Twentytwowords user who witnessed how the maid-of-honour broke up a wedding shared how the events of the day played out. The user is a co-worker of the bride in question and says the maid of honour confessed that the groom had been seeing her for months before the wedding.
"The bride left in tears and the groom immediately tried to get with the maid of honour but she told him she wasn’t gonna hurt the bride further," wrote the user.
All pain eventually heals and the bride is reported to be doing much better and got a promotion at her job. She is also on speaking terms with the maid-of-honour but it goes without guessing that they are not exactly best friends anymore.
5 - The mother-in-law who didn't want the groom in her family
In a Reddit post another user shareD a disturbing turn of events at a wedding he attended about five years ago. It was a beautiful affair with the bride and groom smiling happily at the alter until the bride's mother took the opportunity to make her objection known.
She said she didn't want to continue their family with "a man like him," meaning the groom.
According to the user, the bride-to-be ran off crying, while her dad took the mom and ran after the bride.
"The groom, on the other hand, stood there awkwardly until the groomsmen took him away. I had to leave because it was too weird. Apparently, the reception went on, though they did not get married that day. They wound up having a private ceremony and are still happily married," says the user.
It's a relief that in some of these weddings the objection was overlooked and the weddings went ahead.
Have you ever attended a wedding which turned awkward? Tell us about it here.SOURCES: Reddit, Buzzfeed, Twentytwowords, Livescience.
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