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Reverend Charges Brides a Fee If They’re Late to Their Own Weddings

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It’s the bride’s right to be late, isn’t it? We spend our whole lives being on time, for everything every day, but if there’s one thing where we can be just a little bit late, it’s for our very own wedding, right?

If you happen to be getting married at the Holy Cross Church in Kent, England, you’d better be on time.

Reverend John Corbyn has a policy of charging brides a fee if they are more than 10 minutes late to the church. The fee is £100 ($136), which is a pretty considerable amount.

This is how it works: The happy couple have to give a £100 deposit before the wedding takes place. Then, a check for the same amount is presented back to the newly weds if they abide by the imposed time restrictions. What do you think about this? It’s a bit outrageous, right? How unfair! What if there’s a crisis, or the bouquet goes missing, or the car breaks down? What if there’s a hair and makeup emergency?

It might seem a bit alarming, but Corbyn might have a good reason for the fine. A couple of years ago, he had been away in Uganda and returned to find his church had two delayed weddings in a row — up to 25 minutes each — with no valid excuses. “My team was feeling a bit ill-used,” he told The Times.

“The £100 is distributed among the local actors, like the organist, verger, bellringers, and the choir,” he added.

Apparently, he got the idea from St. Paul’s Cathedral Namirembe in Kampala, Uganda. At the church, many weddings are performed one after the other in quick succession and couples are offered incentives to arrive on time.

His interpretation of this was a fine. Some people might find it reasonable — we wouldn’t expect to work extra hours for no extra pay just because it was “tradition” for the boss to turn up late. In addition, as members of the congregation, isn’t it a bit boring to wait hours and hours for the bride to make her grand entrance? After all, haven’t we all rushed to make it there on time?

It’s all very interesting!

This post was written by Edwina Langley. For more, check out our sister site Grazia.

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