quakers and quaker weddings. liz was raised quaker. Don't get all shocked, it's not like that.

info specifically on quaker weddings:
a typical Quaker marriage ceremony
faith and practise section that includes the bit on marriage and weddings
a couples' little blurb about their Quaker wedding
Beliefnet person wonders what to expect

quaker weddings. quaker weddings are just like normal quaker meetings - everyone sits quietly in a room where all the chairs face the centre. Those who feel led to speak, do so. There is no flower-girl-bridesmaids-bride procession, and no organ music, and the FOB doesn't walk the bride in (and he certainly doesn't "give the woman away"!) because the bride and groom come in together and sit. When the bride and groom feel led to marry, they stand up and recite their vows (approximately, "In the presence of God and these our friends, I take thee ___ to be my wife/husband, promising with Divine assistance to be unto thee a loving and faithful wife/husband so long as we both shall live.") They sign the marriage certificate and it is read aloud. They sit back down and meeting continues until an hour has passed from the start, and everyone and anyone in attendance is still welcome to speak as they like - then when the hour is up, everyone shakes hands, and then, everyone (but, everyone - i felt awfully important when i got to sign one when i was five) signs the marriage certificate. In my personal experience, this is usually followed by a potluck lunch on the grass.

things written by non-quakers attending Quaker weddings:one, two, three

our wedding. while liz and matt are having an Ordained Person doing a Ceremony (i.e., by the power vested in Taylor by the internet) there will be an Unscripted Time during which we welcome those in attendance to speak. You may surprise yourself and "feel led" to say something. Go for it. :)

quakers. liz was never baptized, there aren't any ministers, priests et c., it's very d.i.y. and coming to it on your own terms. there's faith and practise, which is sort of .. well .. they say in the second sentence not to go by the letter. so. but it's online in its entirety. also the beliefnet website is, um, okay. And has good links. There are several different sorts of quakers and mine are the unprogrammed version (as opposed to programmed or Evangelical - there are thousands of evangelical ones in Ethiopia, all the missionaries are evangelical - one came to our house once - and they're certainly very nice but more, um, Jesus-y than we are - and the programmed ones have their own yearly meetings and national conferences, et c). there are pamphlets from Philly yearly meeting about quakerism in general - quakers are organized by monthly (town/city) and yearly (typically statewide) meetings, only monthly meetings meet every week - and there's nationwide conferences every 3 years i think as well though i've never been to one of those. Some of these publications are really cool - i like this one - we can all pretty much agree on that. some of the pamphlets have jesus and god in them. but quakerism goes so well with any of the meditative eastern-type religions, and a lot of people get along really well with the dalai lama. the dalai lama would fit in just fine.

um. the american friends service committee won the nobel peace prize, in the 40s i think. yes. 1947. together with the british one.

misconceptions about quakers.The thee and thou thing that people associate with quakers doesn't really happen at all - it was in use because that's the informal kind of english, like 'tu' instead of 'vous' in french - 'you' is formal and falsely honorary and 'thee' is on-par-with-me. quakers are not mennonites or amish and they cut their hair in normal hair salons and wear dyed clothes and wear hats or don't wear hats as they see fit and use zippers and computers and cars and normal doctors and air conditioning and while they might avoid KFC for their evil chicken farming practices or Burger King because they're mowing down the rainforest we're not remotely kosher or anything like that. um. quakers have nothing to do with oatmeal or with engine oil and those companies chose their names because quakers were renowened for their honesty and being associated with them made those companies seem extra trustworthy. quakers are called quakers by, um, everybody, though the actual name is the Religious Society of Friends, because George Fox was libelled by a judge and because the Shakers were formed around the same time. quakers do not put their hands on the bible in court and get sworn in, and the court is okay with this. um. questions? Ask.

finally, for those lucky people who already knew all of this:
quaker jokes pages.