From a very young age, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) are encouraged to marry in the temple when they grow up. Marriage represents the most important ordinance of the Mormon temple, binding families together for eternity and making exaltation possible.
Temple Recommends Required for Temple Sealing
Couples wanting to marry in the temple must first talk to their ecclesiastical leaders to obtain temple recommends signifying their worthiness to enter the house of the Lord. After receiving their recommends and completing the initiatory and endowment ordinances, they can be married in the temple. The guest list for temple weddings is encouraged to be limited to family and very close friends. All attendees must carry temple recommends.
What Happens in a Temple Wedding Ceremony
Both the bride and the groom wear white ceremonial clothing in the sealing rooms of the temple. In appearance, temple sealing rooms are white and beautiful. Large wall mirrors are situated on either side of the room, representing eternity as the couple looks in the mirror to see a reflection seems to go on forever.
The officiator in the ceremony usually gives some personal words of advice and counsel to the couple first. The couple then kneels across the altar from each other and the words of the ceremony are pronounced, which explain the covenants and blessings that stem from eternal temple marriage. The brief ceremony is about 20 minutes long, and does not include music or walking down an aisle.
LDS Wedding Parties and Receptions
The sealing ceremony in the temple involves just the bride and groom. But couples often choose to take pictures outside the temple before or after the ceremony with a wedding party consisting of bridesmaids, groomsmen, and so on.
Couples usually plan a reception or open house following the temple ceremony to celebrate their wedding with friends and family. They may even choose to have a short ring ceremony at the reception, since exchanging wedding rings is not part of the LDS temple sealing. A typical Mormon reception includes food and dancing, and aside from the absence of alcohol, it's probably much like any other wedding reception.
Temple Marriage vs. Civil Marriage
Mormons often call temple marriage a "temple sealing" or "eternal marriage" because couples married in the temple will be "sealed" together for all eternity, not just until death. Any children they have are also automatically sealed to them, cementing their family together forever.
Civil marriage is any wedding performed in a church meetinghouse, courthouse, or any other location. It is binding only until death. Even an LDS couple married in an LDS Sunday church building by their LDS bishop are married for this life only.
Mormon Temple Sealing Authority
Like all other callings in the church, LDS temple sealing officiators are unpaid. They do not seek or volunteer for their positions, but are called by priesthood authority through direct revelation from God. Individuals who accept the call are then ordained (given the sealing power) by having the hands of those in authority laid on their heads.
In addition to modern revelation, Mormons draw their beliefs about the power and authority to seal from Jesus' statement to his disciple Peter: "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." (Matthew 16:18)
Religious Significance of Temple Marriage
It's important to understand that in Mormon theology, marriage has a very definite purpose. Temple sealing doesn't concern couples so much as it does families. Since families are considered the most important unit in creation, temple sealing is the crowning ordinance of the temple.
In the words of church leader Russell M. Nelson, temple marriage allows couples to "continue as spouses after death and receive the highest degree of celestial glory, or exaltation... Within the celestial glory are three levels. To obtain the highest, a husband and wife must be sealed for time and all eternity and keep their covenants made in a holy temple."
To Latter-day Saints, there is no ordinance more important than that of a temple marriage. The ceremony itself is short, quiet, and simple. However, it carries immeasurable blessings for faithful LDS families.
