From my experience, and what I've seen only. At a younger age, in your 20's it seems that there is a lot of pressure to get married fast. It's rare that I saw anyone get married that fast though.
The older you get, the less this becomes an issue, at least in my experience, although there seems to be more of a desperation among some to get married. This maybe due to hearing that families can be together forever, every time you go to church. You'll hear this over, and over again, where if you are single, you feel like there is something wrong with you. I digress.
However, the odd thing to me, is that they got married in Vegas. That really stands out to me.
Most active members in good standing, actually will refuse to get married civilly, and choose instead to get married & sealed in a local temple instead. The belief is to get sealed to families forever, which is extremely important in the LDS religion. This obviously requires that both the man and woman are worthy of entering the temple (I.e hold temple recommends)
Those that aren't worthy to get married in the temple (and who don't want to wait to work towards that goal) will typically choose to instead get married locally (i.e. Rexburg), in a local Chapel having your local Bishop preside. They still have the choice to work towards getting a temple marriage down the road.
Also, There is always at least one reception too. This is a huge deal here in Idaho. Never seen a wedding that doesn't have a huge reception. As far as I know, they never had one that I have heard about, very strange.
Vegas would have a negative connotation to it, and wouldn't make any sense. I've been to plenty of weddings over the years, but don't recall one of them being in Vegas.
What I do recall is years ago, BYU (Utah), cracked down on a bunch of students that were trying to be sneaky with religion. What they were doing is going to Vegas on the weekend to get married, having sex, then getting an annulment before going back to school a few days later. The Church got wind of this, and made sure that students understood this is not acceptable, and will not be tolerated. They were obviously breaking the Spirit of the Law, as the Church was pointing out.
Ever since then, Vegas weddings in the LDS religion have had a very negative light shed on them, probably for this reason. Plus, Vegas weddings are seen as a quickie marriage when you are eloping; that is the other time I have heard of getting married in Vegas.
What strikes me as odd, is Melani, Lori, and the rest of this group come off as wanting everyone to believe that they are very active in their religion, and are held in high regard. Yet, they all have these quick weddings that aren't even in a church, let alone a temple? There are no guests, no receptions, and they all happen super fast.
Something feels very off to me.
MOO
