Priest Says No to Four-Footed Guests at Couple’s Wedding
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The priest rejected the couple’s requests to have “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” played during their wedding and to have a petting zoo outside the church.
But he did consent to up to 10 animals fashioned out of grapevines displayed near the altar, a large bouquet of vegetables under the crucifix, groomsmen wearing radish boutonnieres and the bride carrying a nosegay of pea pods, parsley, small artichokes, young broccoli and other baby vegetables.
The November wedding of an animal-activist/vegetarian couple at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church on Los Angeles’ Westside was an unusual example of a church trying to provide meaningful weddings without compromising religious standards.
“It was a lot of fun, yet spiritual,” said Mary Anne Cosgrove, the wedding director at the parish run by Paulist Fathers.
The Beverly Hills couple, Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson, selected the biblical readings for the ceremony. “The readings were wonderful--they all related to animals,” Cosgrove said. The couple’s friends “thought the wedding was wonderful.”
“Old MacDonald” would have violated the church’s policy of playing “only God-oriented or classical music,” Cosgrove said.
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