John-David Duggar Takes His Time During First Kiss With Wife Abbie Grace Burnett

John-David Duggar’s first kiss with new bride Abbie Burnett was awkward, to put it mildly. Though the two got married a few weeks ago, video of their nuptials is making its way around the internet. As E! Online reports, you can see how nervous and embarrassed the young couple was. In fact, the whole thing took about 45 seconds and included several fails.

For centuries, it’s been a tradition in culturally Christian, Western weddings for the bride and groom to share a kiss in front of the congregation once the officiant declares them married. The reasons for this are perhaps lost to the mists of time, but nevertheless, you’ve likely seen it happen in just about every wedding you’ve been to.

For most couples, the “first kiss” is hardly their first, and while doing the deed in front of witnesses can be a tad embarrassing, most know what they’re doing well enough to pull it off. Not so much for John-David and Abbie.

As you know if you’ve followed the Duggar family, the devoutly-Christian Arkansas family takes a different approach to dating and relationships than what most are exposed to. Long story short, they don’t “date” so much as go through a trial period, called a courtship, where they see if they’re compatible with each other and if their families mesh. Time alone together is forbidden, physical contact is extremely limited, and kissing is right out.

So in John-David and Abbie’s case, it was almost certainly a literal first kiss for the couple there at the altar.

https://youtu.be/eNS9UoxE-YA

Whether it was from embarrassment, from nervousness, from wanting to entertain the bride (and/or perhaps the crowd), or from literally not knowing what to do, John-David fumbled about before finally getting it right. First, he kissed her left hand, then her right hand, then each of her shoulders in turn. Then her forehead, then each of her cheeks, and then finally her lips. All the while the crowd nervously giggled, as did Abbie.

“You’re so silly.”

John-David is the eighth of the Duggar children to make it to the altar, and at 28, one of the oldest to have done so. And as it turns out, he’s not the first to have made the first kiss a thing at his wedding. Way back in 2016, when his sister Jessa Duggar married Ben Seewald, the pair opted not to share their first kiss in front of the congregation, instead choosing to share it behind closed doors when the cameras were off. The rest of his siblings, however, did share the first kiss at the altar.