Bates Wedding: 800 Invitations and Counting/Pirate MERGE

[Milly-Molly-Mandy]

It took me a bit to find it. I had to try to force search to cooperate. I didn't find the other Erin and Chad thread either.

This thread title is better anyway ;)

[Megan]

:lol: Getting a visual of this right now, that's awesome. If you go, you should totally pop out of the wedding cake.

Speaking of the cake, that sucker's going to have to be at least 15-20 tiers if they want enough to feed 800 people. I hope they plan accordingly for the wedding feast, it would suck if they only had cake and mints for so many guests.

I'm guessing a standard wedding cake for pictures (possibly even the fake cake with one real layer thing?) and then tons of sheet cake for guests. Super small pieces if a lot of people show up!

I imagine "800 invitations" is actually 800 invited guests. Given how large fundie families are, there's probably closer to 100 invitations being mailed, possibly even fewer. 800 invitations with fundie families would be disastrous!

[ILoveJellybeans]

800 wedding guests?

Im from a large family and I still dont think I could think of 800 people to invite, even if I invited all my third cousins who I had never met.

Although I guess with fundies, cause everyone has about 10 kids and you dont become friends with a person, you become friends with a family, just wanting to invite a few close friends of hers would mean inviting their parents and 8-18 siblings, and probably their married siblings partners and children.

[sun_shiine64]

Seems like the typical superfastfundie wedding. How long have they been engaged?

3 months

[chaotic life]

Gil Bates is on the ATI Board of Directors, and Chad's father is just as powerful in Gothard circles as Gil. The Duggars may have a media presence in mainstream circles, but the Bates are FAR more fundie royalty in the Gothard circles. I would guess that the organization may be helping with the bills, the groom's family may be helping, and 800 invitations is likely a bare minimum.

In the Gothard world, this is definitely a fundie royalty wedding. I'm not sure if that will cross over into other fundie organizations such as VF though.

[fundiefan]

Well, when you consider the size of the families they come in contact with a more normal family in a more normal environment would probably be about a third of that. Still a big wedding. But, when every family you know breeds like rabbits, one family comes with 12 people. Just ten families means 120 people. In my world, ten families means maybe 30-40 people. If everyone in a family of 12 gets an invitation, that's a lot of invitations.

Still doesn't justify the greed involved, or the self-promotion, but it does somewhat account for the massive numbers.

[Ms Jess]

800 invitations means well over 800 guests have been invited. When I got married I sent out about 100 invitations and had 300 guests.

[teachergirl]

Yeah, you figure all of those ATI families Staddons, Wilkes, Neelys, Stetzels all have 8-10 children plus the ones who have married and had ones of their own. I think it is mandatory they all get invited.lol

I suppose you could get to 800 with little problem in these circles.

Didn't Justin and Melissa (Keen) Turley have around 600? Anyway, should be interesting to see....

[Meghann]

The Wedding

2nd Baptist Church

777 Public Safety Ln

Clinton, TN 37716

November 2nd, 2013 ~ 2:00pm

Light Reception to Follow

chadloveserin.com

[teachergirl]

why do all of the ATI guys have websites like this? It feel so possessive to me....David and Priscilla, Robert and Kendalyn and now these two? I hope for the best for these two. They seem in love and maybe Erin won't be as fertile as her mother and they can enjoy being married for awhile.

[pega127]

Beautiful church. Back to the invites. I asked on their web page about the 800 invitations-does it mean 800 individual invites (each member of the mega families gets an actual invite); as oppose to 800 invitations addressed to Mr. & Mrs...and family/guest? The numbers could be way higher if it's the second option!

[Black Aliss]

Jesus hates candy, clearly. ;)

Well, yes, he does. As soon as candy became commercially available, rather than something you made in your own kitchen on a boring winter night, the Temperance people were all over it. Seems they believed that sugar turned into alcohol in your stomach. Of course even without bad science, there's the belief that anything you enjoy is, by definition, bad for you. You could call it Maxwell's Postulate, except there's already one of those.

[Rescinded and Mended]

What exactly does "light reception" mean, are we talking cake and mints? I wonder if it would be rude to simply request that each guest family bring a covered dish of some kind. With so many invites being sent out, Kelly and Gil might want to consider doing this, especially if the cost of providing the wedding reception meal was an issue. With so many people attending, it will take much longer to get the festivities going, as well as for the new married couple to receive all the wedding guests. I would want people to have somewhere to sit down, enjoy a meal and visit while everything got sorted out, if it was me.

On the other hand, I also get where some believe that you absolutely never ask anyone to bring food or alcohol to a wedding. And if TLC is paying for everything in exchange for being able to film, couldn't the network also kick in for catering?

[Coconut Flan]

The wedding is at 2:00 PM so scheduled between meals. That's common in Southern fundie weddings. No one in that group will expect a meal. Light reception could be just cake and punch or could include mints, nuts, and finger sandwiches. With the number of guests invited I expect they won't be offering the finger sandwiches.

[gustava]

The street name where the church is located is a hoot!!

2nd Baptist Church

777 Public Safety Ln

Clinton, TN 37716

Guess they can leave their guns at home!! :lol: :lol:

[Buzzard]

If she just recently sent the invitations I'm guessing a lot of those are simply requests for gifts. With 2-3 weeks notice I dont see a lot of these people packing up their kidz and traveling long distances for a wedding with "snacks." I'm sure they'll just get a card with "blessings" and something off their registry.

The Duggars will be in the front row, of course, pretending to help.

[nelliebelle1197]

why do all of the ATI guys have websites like this? It feel so possessive to me....David and Priscilla, Robert and Kendalyn and now these two? I hope for the best for these two. They seem in love and maybe Erin won't be as fertile as her mother and they can enjoy being married for awhile.

He seems to be buckling under the weight of her hair and it attendant sprays in the first picture.

[pega127]

If she just recently sent the invitations I'm guessing a lot of those are simply requests for gifts. With 2-3 weeks notice I dont see a lot of these people packing up their kidz and traveling long distances for a wedding with "snacks." I'm sure they'll just get a card with "blessings" and something off their registry.

The Duggars will be in the front row, of course, pretending to help.

...and Michelle will be dapping her eyes and babbling about a new season of life.

[thoughtful]

why do all of the ATI guys have websites like this? It feel so possessive to me....David and Priscilla, Robert and Kendalyn and now these two?

They all probably had something else in mind, but their parents told them to substitute "loves" for "owns" -- less tacky and maybe the heathens won't catch on.

[PennySycamore]

The wedding is at 2:00 PM so scheduled between meals. That's common in Southern fundie weddings. No one in that group will expect a meal. Light reception could be just cake and punch or could include mints, nuts, and finger sandwiches. With the number of guests invited I expect they won't be offering the finger sandwiches.

I''ve never understood the Southern fun die tendency to have wedding receptions that are duller than dishwater. There's no food and of course no booze or dancing. What's the point?

[Coconut Flan]

When you grow up with it, it seems normal. To do otherwise would cause "talk" and "talk" is to be avoided in that society. To them the wedding is the important thing and the reception afterward falls to the level of coffee and doughnuts after church.

[Swamptribe]

They sent out the invitations only three weeks before the wedding? 800 Invitations (figure the majority are for two people, in Fundiland one invitation probably covers the entire family, instead of doing separate invitations for children over 16) This type of behavior is known as a 'gift grab' on etiquette boards I love to frequent, and the HEIGHT of tackiness.

[snarkykitty]

I would not be surprised if TLC was paying for a lot of the wedding in exchange for filming.

Remember those "Super Sweet 16" parties on MTV? Most of the services were comped, so the usually wealthy families ended up not paying much at all, just like the actresses and singers attending Oscars/Golden Globes/Emmy/Grammy events don't pay for their gowns.

I do not doubt for one second that if aired, most of the wedding will be comped.

[snarkykitty]

[attachment=0]2ndBaptist.gif.jpg[/attachment]

The Wedding

2nd Baptist Church

777 Public Safety Ln

Clinton, TN 37716

November 2nd, 2013 ~ 2:00pm

Light Reception to Follow

chadloveserin.com

What a weird photo on that site. Her head looks huge compared to his, and her face looks unnaturally round. Maybe it's the hair? I don't know. It's very awkward.

[FloraKitty35]

The street name where the church is located is a hoot!!

2nd Baptist Church

777 Public Safety Ln

Clinton, TN 37716

Guess they can leave their guns at home!! :lol: :lol:

Please, they never leave their guns at home. ;)