If you’re planning on getting married in a Gozo and having your ceremony in a church, the Bishop of Gozo has put out a letter explaining some of the new rules that couples now have to follow.
He has expressed that all outfits for the ceremony have to reflect the holy sacrament that the couple is about to receive.
Thus, the bride’s dress, the bridesmaids’ dresses and the dresses of the mother of the bride and groom together with those of the guests have to stick to these rules:
- The front of the dress cannot have a low cut, to the point where the chest is showing too much.
- The back of the dress cannot have a lower cut than that of the cut of the front of the dress
- The shoulders have to be covered at the halfway distance between the elbow and shoulder.
- There cannot be any transparent material used in the parts being asked to be covered in rules a,b and c. There also cannot be any transparency from above the knees.
Those who have already bought their dresses are now being asked to buy extra material for a shawl to cover any of the areas mentioned above.
Apart from dress rules, the Bishop has also asked couples to take note of their flower arrangements. While flowers are allowed, they should be there to enhance the spiritual place that is church. They should not take away the attention to the point where the attention is only focused on the flowers rather than the church itself.
The bishop is also asking couples to make better decisions when choosing the songs and music to be played during the ceremony. The music has to be adequate to the particular moment of the mass. Church music should not be an epic performance by the artist performing but instead the songs have to be in the form of a prayer to God.
What do you make of these rules?