Ugh

I was screwing around over on Postmormon.org today and there was a thread about non-temple LDS weddings. This is what I had, because I had been a mormon for all of like 5 minutes and I've never had enough money to tithe to be able to get INTO the stupid temple in the first place. Imagine that, I have to make payments to some old men to be able to be sealed to my family. Sounds like a company.

Anyhoodle, a lot of people were talking about their non-temple weddings and said that if they could do it over they would. Some people only had a temple wedding, and still would do it over. If you're reading this and don't know anything about temple weddings....this is how it works, roughly. You have to be a "worthy" (excuse my skeptical snort) member to get a temple recommend. A temple recommend stems from an interview you have with your bishop where he asks a bunch of questions which really aren't any of his business, IMO. You have to follow the Word of Wisdom (no tea, coffee, alcohol), pay your tithing (10% of gross income), and be an active member in church (I refuse to say THE church, because it isn't THE church. It's just A church). Those are the main points to being worthy. And you have to had maintained worthiness for a year, at least.

If you are deemed worthy (aw shucks, lil ol meeee? Thanks, by golly!), you get your recommend, which tangibly is a piece of paper with a bar code on it. Yep. They keep track of worthy people with bar codes. Moving on. If it is your first marriage, you are expected to have followed the law of chastity. ANYWAY, you go into the temple and they perform a ceremony which is supposed to bind you to your spouse for all time and eternity. As far as I understand it, from talking to people who've been in the temple, you don't exchange rings.

SO. The main point. Non-temple weddings are played down like they aren't as important, because they are seen as mortal contracts. The bish will probably say something to the effect of this ceremony being only for life, and he'll probably look incredibly bored, like ours did. It will take maybe 5 minutes. The bishop's wife will sit there staring at some point beyond your head, chewing her gum hugely and probably think about what scrapbooking materials she's itching to buy. (Ok, so that was my "wedding". And I'm not certain it was scrapbooking. Coulda been recipes. Either way. Results may vary).

Will and I should've done our wedding how we initially planned. We wanted to either get married at the Opryland Hotel (found a sweet package) or at this place near Palmer Lake, CO. Why didn't we? I can never really answer that question in my head. I know part of it was no monetary help from the parents and it would've taken us a long time to pay for it ourselves. Part of it was conflicting ideas on how it should be done by our families, and part of it was we just wanted to be married and didn't care to have a big 'ol party for a bunch of relatives we'd been pressured to invite but didn't really know or maybe like. I don't think most of my family would've come anyway. In any case, my biggest regret is that we didn't do it exactly how we wanted to. You know what I remember from my meager ceremony? His sister's voice cutting in with, "I WANNA GO HOME". Niiiiiiiiice. So if you're reading this and thinking, "Well that's what you get" then you're probably right.

I'm a little bitter. Do I sound bitter? I think just a tad bitter.

I WANT A DO OVER!

My sister is going to get married in Jamaica next year. Just her and her boyfriend. I would have it somewhere in the mountains, outside. I would invite a limited amount of people that I REALLY want there. Why do people get their panties in a twist over who to invite to weddings? Why does it matter if my second cousin who I saw like twice when I was 7 is there? They aren't a part of my every day life. I would barely know them. They don't especially care to see me get married. Doesn't make sense to me.

So yeah. Do over. Plz k thx.