My ex-Lutheran cousin married his Catholic bride this weekend!

[trotsky]

And, contrary to my grandma claiming that this was "the worst thing that's ever happened to the family," the cosmos did not collapse, God did not smite my family of Lutherans as they sat in the Catholic church, and a reasonably good time was had by all. Though my grandma did kind of sit off by herself most of the time.

Oh, I should make it clear that yes, my cousin did convert in order to marry this girl.

Though my 4-year-old daughter kept me from watching some of the ceremony, that was the first Catholic wedding I had attended so it was interesting seeing some of the differences.

The best part of the evening? The roast beef at the reception was outstanding! Those Catholics must have a secret recipe!

[Jokerman]

1. Catholic Weddings

In my experience the Catholics have the longest and most boring wedding ceremonies but the best receptions. Good food and LOTS of alcohol.

The worst reception I've ever been to was for a friend who married into the Nazarene church. Alcohol and dancing were expressly FORBIDDEN. As a member of the wedding party it was my job to sneak booze in for the groom's family.

[trotsky]

2. My experience echoed yours.

The ceremony was over an hour! But yes, open bar at the reception. Plenty of headaches the next morning! Oh, and a pretty good DJ too. I didn't get to stay long at the reception - I had to get my kids in bed. It was my wife's "turn" to drink so I was stuck with kid duty. :(

[Taxloss]

3. "the worst thing that's ever happened to the family,"

The wonderful thing about faith is that it gives you a sense of perspective. It raises your eyes from the quotidian and you see the eternal and sublime. You are placed in a greater and loving cosmos; you are at one with infinity.

Or not.

[trotsky]

4. "Or not."

:rofl:

Keep in mind that her proclamation would necessarily mean that the death of her husband, my grandfather, the patriarch of the family, 10 years ago would NOT be the "worst thing" anymore. :eyes:

[beam me up scottie]

5. You should have told her

that the ceremony so impressed you that you and your family were all converting to catholicism.

[trotsky]

6. You know, I'm not quite sure what would be worse for her.

Learning that we're atheists, or converting to Catholicism.

You're going to hell either way, I guess, but Catholicism I bet would be worse.

[beam me up scottie]

7. When I first met my ex's mother

I had no idea she was a fundie but he had warned me not to tell her I was non-religious.
She immediately started asking about my family and background. When the subject of my religion came up, I jokingly told her that I was Jewish.
Needless to say, it didn't go over very well.
She hated me on sight and my husband wouldn't speak to me for the rest of the evening.
And it was all downhill from there...

[trotsky]

11. Jewish, oh yeah that would go over really well too!

CHRIST-KILLER!

[onager]

8. I had to do this once!

My cousin married a Catholic guy in a giant formal wedding.

If anyone on our side of the family had ever been in a Catholic church, I'd be surprised.

The first thing that happened: my relatives all pulled out those nifty little Prayer Knee-rest thingies and used them for foot-rests. That raised a lot of eyebrows on the other side of the aisle.

Oh, and this was the very day Pope Paul VI croaked. We heard that news at the reception. My uncle wittily suggested that the Pope was probably listening in to the wedding ceremony, and its stupendous length finished him off.

I'm pretty sure that one wedding got our whole family permanently pre-Excommunicated. Not that I would give a Cheney or anything...

:evilgrin:

[trotsky]

10. LOL

Funny you mention the knee-things - it was all I could do to keep my daughter from flipping it down!

Religion: if nothing else, it's good for a laugh. Too bad there aren't more freethinkers in my family, or we could have had a real fun time.

On edit: I did have some fun with the holy water dispenser, though. :) "Ahhh, it burns, it burns!"

[shrike]

12. That's nothing. I'll tell you a real doozy

My cousin married in a very large, elaborate wedding. The religious part was no problem for us because everyone is Catholic. But all of her friends had to get up and participate in some way: prayers, song. Wedding must have gone on for two and a half hours.

Then, when we got to the reception, it continued. When the maid of honor strapped on her guitar this audible groan shook the room.

Kicker is, they divorced a year later. The bride came out as a lesbian.

[shrike]

9. Yeah, we do put on a good party

if I may modestly say so. I've attended Catholic weddings (my family) and non-Catholic weddings, and for the most part ours are pretty good, probably because the Church has nothing against alcohol, dancing or gluttony. Actually, the wakes aren't bad, either.

The best and most interesting wedding I ever attended was Hindu. The man who performed the ceremony (sorry, I don't recall his title) explained that the (translated into English) vows were very traditional and he had no problem if anybody chuckled during the ceremony. And people did, because the groom had to promise his new bride to give over to her all his goats, etc. The traditional dress, the food were great.