Tomorrow I will be
attending the wedding of a nephew in Pennsylvania. He will be married in a
church but the reception will take place in a barn. Because the temperatures
will be in the high 80s to low 90s (Fahrenheit), some of my relatives are
bemoaning the lack of air-conditioned comfort. What do you wear as you move
from the cool of the church ceremony to the heat of the reception?
Having the reception in a barn apparently a growing trend
for weddings. This will be the fourth one for me in the past few years, my own
daughter’s included. I have three friends in various parts of the U.S. who have
renovated barns to make them usable for wedding receptions. I consulted a
website, thebarnboard.org, and discovered that there are barns available across
the country for events such as wedding receptions. “I think a
barn symbolizes a sense of peace and oneness with the land that
harmonizes well with the idea of a wedding,” states the website. “I want a barn
because the space is large and unusual and it will well reflect our love of
nature and being true to the land.”
Outdoor weddings are also an increasing trend. Although
tomorrow’s ceremony will take place in a church, at all the other “barn”
weddings I’ve attended, the ceremony took place outdoors. In the past four
years, I have attended twelve weddings. Of those twelve, half held their wedding ceremony in a church. But
only two of those six continued their festivities indoors. In summary, two out
of twelve weddings had everything indoors, and one of those two took place in
the winter. Ten of the twelve had one or the other part of the ceremony
outdoors.
I draw two observations from these trends. First, this
generation of young adults are becoming more and more attuned to nature. I
think it is because of increased awareness of ecological problems that are
plaguing our world and wanting to do something about it. Young adults are
interested in gardening and preserving their produce the old fashioned way. The
quote about using a barn for their wedding I think reflects well these trends,
“[using a barn] will well reflect our love of nature and being true to the
land.” Young adults want to be closer to nature, and I think this is a good
thing.
Secondly, I think the traditional church is becoming less
and less important for young adults, reflected in the fact that only half of
the weddings I attended were held in a church. Although I find this trend to be
unsettling, I think it behooves the organized church to look closely in the
mirror as to why this is so. The reasons for this trend are the topic of
another blog post, but I think it has to do with ambiguity, inclusiveness and
the lack of being real on the part of many church attenders. I’ll leave my
comments at that for now.
So I’m off to another barn wedding. Since it will take place
in the vicinity of my childhood, I’m sure I will be able to bear the heat.
Congratulations Justin and Alicia!