Weddings

 During WWII there were frequent mid-week weddings as the groom was going off to war. If the nun liked you she would excuse you for classes for several hours for you to act as altar server and witness this ceremony up close - and hopefully get a five dollar tip which was huge back then. The rite pronounced by the priest was serious stuff - i.e. "til death do us part." And the vow taken by the "participants" included old English words i.e. "and unto you I plight my troth." Pretty heavy. With a more formal wedding the brides wore long gowns with a "train" trailing behind. These required a third attendant to act as "train bearer" to lift this flowing fabric - but not too high - and follow the bride all over the altar lest she trip. There was no training for this job and you had no rehearsal. Funerals were not the same happy occasion and usually paid less. The worst situation would be a ten o'clock wedding running late and an eleven o'clock funeral arriving early - with the bride and groom going down the steps under a shower of rice and passing the casket on the way in. And then seeing two sets of black limos and hopefully getting in the right one. Back then the wedding came first and the baby arrived later. In recent times the situation is sometimes reversed. A priest friend told me of a couple walking up the aisle to be married pulling their infant in a little red wagon. In the rush to leave the church the wagon was left behind. After the honeymoon a mother-in-law came to the priest to try to claim it - but it was nowhere in the lost & found.
Can only assume that someone else wanted to use it.
tjs
Next - The Bicentennial