Animal, Vegetable and Matrimony

The priest rejected the couple’s requests to have “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” played during their wedding and have a petting zoo outside the church.

But he did consent to displaying near the altar up to 10 animals fashioned out of grapevines, a large bouquet of vegetables under the crucifix, groomsmen wearing radish boutonnieres and the bride carrying a nosegay of pea pods, parsley, small artichokes, young broccoli and other baby vegetables.

The November wedding of an animal-activist/vegetarian couple at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church on Los Angeles’ Westside was an unusual example of a church trying to provide meaningful weddings without compromising religious standards.

“It was a lot of fun, yet spiritual,” said Mary Anne Cosgrove, the wedding director at the parish run by Paulist Fathers.

The Beverly Hills couple, Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson, selected the biblical readings for the ceremony. “The readings were wonderful--they all related to animals,” Cosgrove said.

Cosgrove, who has directed weddings for seven years at the parish, said most weddings there have been traditional Catholic.

“Most of the couple’s friends are Jewish, and vegetarians and animal activists like themselves,” she said. “They thought the wedding was wonderful.”

But “Old MacDonald” would have violated the church’s policy of playing “only God-oriented or classical music,” Cosgrove said. “And a petting zoo was out of the question because we were having other weddings that day.”