I think it is significant that the couple goes in both directions. First, they walk toward the altar. The Lord anticipates their approach. Each step brings a bride and groom nearer and nearer to Him. Their kinsmen and friends are links in the procession, pounding the muscle memory into their soles that God is where marriage begins.

 

Then a wink in eternity later, they twirl and sashay the other way. This time the husband and wife are facing throngs of people who have chosen to gather in this cathedral, to witness the transformation from he and she into we. In regarding the congregation, they  are imprinted with the faces of the persons their marriage is born to serve.

 

"You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace." Isaiah 55