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The Mormon Wedding Crasher

Weddings, the fancy event that proceeds enormous amounts of free food; at least that is how I viewed it as a kid.  My mom comes from a family of 12 brothers and sisters and she happens to be number 11.  That places me near the bottom of the cousin hierarchy age wise so I have had the opportunity to go to many of my cousins’ weddings since my childhood.  Although each of them were unique, they all were carried out in a similar fashion.

All of my family happens to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which makes all of my cousins’ weddings a little bit different than other American, and Canadian, weddings.  For others, the wedding is most likely held in a fancy wedding hall, a beach side location, a big Catholic church or even just the Elvis Chapel on the strip.  Over 99% of Mormon weddings happen in one of two places: the temple or the church.*

Weddings performed in local church buildings are similar to most weddings except for maybe a little less fanfare then the ones you see in romantic comedies.  A bishop, which is a volunteer leader who cares for many of the spiritual needs of the congregation, performs the wedding and marries the couple for as long as they live, usually giving them counsel and admonishing them to be loyal to each other and work together as a couple.

Most LDS congregations have their own building or shares these buildings with one or two other local congregations.  Basically, if there is a decent amount of Latter-day Saints in a community, there is probably a church building somewhere too.  In contrast, there are only 152 operating LDS temples in the world today.  Quite a difference right?  Even though there is a vast number of church buildings compared to temples, temples are just as important in Latter-day Saint life and crucial for, yup, you guessed it, many LDS marriages.

Temples (left to right, top to bottom) Las Vegas, NV; Helsinki,
Finland; Sapporo, Japan; Cardston, Alberta; Provo, UT; San
Jose, Costa Rica; Buenos Aires, Argenitan; San Diego, CA
Temples are sacred places in which we can draw spiritually closer to God.  In order to enter the temple, one must be living the gospel of Christ to their best ability and follow the commandments (i.e. maintaining sexual fidelity and refraining from alcohol) so that they are worthy to enter the temple.  This makes it a special place where there is no worldly influence or wrongdoings.  Just peace, silence and a time to focus on the spiritual.  It is almost like a preview of heaven, a special place separated from the world.  It is only here that we can make special promises to God with one of those being marriage.  In the temple, couples are married for not just this lifetime only but for all eternity.

Eternity, what a hard word to grasp.  But think about it!  Imagine being with your husband or wife for, as we say in the church, time and all eternity.  There is no end to it!  No premature death, no physical separation can break this marriage.  That is what I call true love.  Heaven just wouldn’t be the same without the one you loved in this earthly life and only such a holy place as the temple can offer that.  Only someone as loving and powerful as Christ and God himself can offer us this eternal bond stretching into the eternities.

My cousin Kalina, number 46 out of 52 of my grandmother’s grandchildren, was married in the Cardston, Alberta, Canada temple last weekend.  Now a seasoned Mormon wedding crasher, I was able to appreciate just what happened that day.  Of course I enjoyed their reception, their slideshow of baby pictures coupled with 90’s country music that makes you tear up and oh did I ever enjoy their delicious pumpkin spice deserts and dinner rolls.  But more than that I enjoyed seeing the start of the kind of marriage I want one day in my life.  Kalina and Brad weren’t just getting a legal document that allowed them to file taxes together.  Instead they got the assurance that each other would be there for each other to support and love each other, not just for the 60 or so years they have left on this Earth, but until the end of time.

 *Not an actual statistic

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