Fans.com Lockn Contest

We are thinking of selling sponsorships next year. I kid you not.

Hmmm...sponsorship by Lockn' Festival Forum perhaps??

Green? Ew! 

Just a note that VA is much stricter than a lot of other states are on who can perform weddings.  

You have to register with a circuit court and get approved.  

Yeah, in PA those internet ordinations are legally tenuous at best. That's why we didn't do it. Probably would've been okay, but you never want any surprises during, say, end-of-life decisions.

And we're a state that has officiant-free Quaker weddings!

Those are certainly the characteristics that I hope to find in my daughter's future husband. Hopefully he at least slings pins on lot...

Thanks very much, I appreciate that.

Judge: "Can you provide proof that you believe in a faith with no leaders?"
Me: "Why yes, I affirm I follow no one."
Judge: "Yes, but can you prove their non-existence?"
Me: "You must read a lot of CS Lewis"

I've done a lot of NC weddings, they are quite easy on requirements.  Their stance (which I happen to think is the right one) is that if you say you are a minister, we as the state don't have the knowledge and ability to tell if you are a real minister or not, so we are going to accept it.  No pre-registration, just sign the certficiate with your credentials and mail it in to the clerk.

Those internet officiant weddings are susceptible to challenge anywhere, if somebody actually wants to challenge them.  Too hard to say which ones would hold up, because it is too tied up in fact patterns.  Generally if everybody was knowledgeable and accepted the situation at the time, it would likely be upheld, but that has so many caveats...

In VA, I don't think you could even get in the door with an internet ordination, but that still might be dependent on the particular county clerk's office.  I think they have gotten a little easier recently, but I don't know all the details.  In some locations there is a bond process involved, or was.  

I personally never understood why we deputized ministers to act as agents of the state in this instance anyway.  Nor why ministers were willing to act as agents of the state, not healthy for either side.  I always thought that everybody should have a civil marriage at the clerk's office.  Then people could have whatever religious or hippie or whatever ceremony they wanted with whoever they wanted.  

This was a real pain for us as non-religious persons. Our only legal option was to go to the clerk. So fuck them, we had her sister who was completing her Masters in Divinity do a completely secular wedding and sign off on it. She obviously believes as a now ordained priest, but recognizes everyone should be able to publicly (and legally) commit to the person they love without government intervention. Anyway, I know this is way off topic, so I will let it lie from here forward.

Pam & I are going to hit 30 on the old wedding anniversary odometer in June. We are talking about renewing our vows or re-I-doing or whatever the term is. Of course we talked about it at 25 too.