#59062 - Stereotypical Mormon weddings

[Dead Cat]

I'm impressed that you know 500 people....

Technically, that would be 1000 people.

[Marduk]

Well, you usually only know the bride or the groom, not both.

[Craig Jessop]

Well, you usually only know the bride or the groom, not both.

Ah, but if you attend the reception, you meet the other half. Not to mention that even if you don't go, you often know the parents of the one or the other. So, conceivably, you know even more than 500 people.

[Marduk]

Sorry, it took me that long to wrap my head around knowing 500 people. I don't think I can handle the idea of more.

[vorpal blade]

I agree that you can probably put a ballpark estimate on the relative cost of a wedding just by casual observation, but if you're going to make a broad statement about money spent on a wedding correlating with marital woes, you'd better have a good methodology and solid figures to back it up.

Do people make casual, "unscientific comments" in a social setting in your world, Katya, only when they are prepared with good methodology and solid figures to back it up?

All right class, the details of proving the Vorpal hypothesis that the length of time between marriage and divorce is inversely proportional to the amount spent on the wedding is left to the class as an exercise.

[vorpal blade]

Sorry, it took me that long to wrap my head around knowing 500 people. I don't think I can handle the idea of more.

It is not so hard to know thousands of people when you have lived awhile and belong to a Mormon clan. 500 people? I have more than that number of close relatives.

Let's see. I was born with 28 aunts and uncles. They produced about 75 cousins. My cousins produced about 300 children, most of whom married and had children of their own. That's already more than 500, though I have to admit that I don't really know all of them.

I have eight brothers and sisters, and so far nine marriages among them. They in turn produced about 35 children, many of whom are now married. I have seven children, four of whom are married.

When I married I gained an additional four brothers-in-law and two sisters-in-law, each of whom married (one of them twice). These in-laws produced around 30 nephews and nieces, and many of these are now married.

That's the close family. In addition I know thousands of people in my stake, and they know me. That comes from serving in visible stake callings for a couple of decades, and highly visible ward callings for another couple of decades. Those ward callings were spread around three wards in my stake, where I still see these people occasionally.

We could add to that, hundreds of people in the community who know me or my wife from community service, quilt guild, speeches at City Hall, working for the same employer, and so forth. Also, I travel a lot. So much that when I walk into our local airport they immediately call me by name. "Hello Mr. [Blade]! How are you today? Where are you going today, Mr. [Blade]?" I also know people from Alaska to Florida, and Boston to LA, and many places in between, and they know me. I know people in Canada, Mexico, Peru, England, France, Germany, Norway, Italy, and India.

Perhaps if you thought about it you could name hundreds of people you know also. Of course, most of the people I know don't know me well enough to invite me to a wedding reception, but hundreds do. It's been a wonderful life.

I could also add to the list many celebrities that I don't personally know, but I read about how much they spent on their weddings, approximately, and generally you hear about the divorces that occur as well.

[Wisteria]

I'm with Vorpal. Based on the number of wedding receptions- and even weddings- that I've been invited to already in my life, of people that I'm friends with, I wouldn't be surprised if I had attended that many wedding receptions by the time I'm his age. At which point I may or may not make conjectures with the sample size I will then have to work with. However, I am used to doing actual research and not observation-based research, so then again I may not.

[vorpal blade]

When the expanding circle of friends that you have become parents and start to have weddings for their numerous children, the number of weddings or receptions you are invited to seems to expand exponentially. (Note, this is a figure of speech, and not an actual calculation).

I do actually research also. When I publish I'm careful to be more scientific. When it is just conversation among friends, which I consider this to be, I make broad statements that I may or may not be able to back up with hard data. I assume it is the same for most of you.

We have not even begun to discuss why a marriage that begins with irresponsible spending, or a perception of entitlement to a high standard of living might lead later to arguing over money, the number one cause of divorce, or so I've heard.

[Marduk]

When it is just conversation among friends...

Aww, we're your friends? /heart

[vorpal blade]

When it is just conversation among friends...

Aww, we're your friends? /heart

Was this a bad assumption?

[Marduk]

Oh Vorpal, I'll always be your friend. As crazy as you may think this is, I have friends that I disagree with more than you.

[Wisteria]

This conversation just took a really weird turn . . .