My daughter is attending a wedding of an old school friend which is taking place at a stately home with all the trimmings. The big dress, the 120 guests and multiple bridesmaids and groomsmen. They’ve even gone to the bother of having a vicar and a full wedding service in the chapel attached to the stately home (which hasn’t been consecrated), however the bride and groom are already married. They married earlier this year, before about 25 members of their families in a RC church, having complied with all the requirements of that church. My daughter tells me that everyone who knows about the real wedding is supposed to pretend that they are unmarried and doing this for the first time, because otherwise ‘it’ll spoil the big day’. I understand that the groom’s mother, is a very forceful personality who wasn’t happy about the RC wedding and is determined to have a big Instagram wedding, but AIBU in thinking this makes a mockery of religious weddings as a sacrament? My husband thinks it’s just another shakedown by entitled offspring with overly indulgent parents, but it’s the deceitfulness of it all that bothers me. Of course parents want help their children celebrate their ‘big day’ but what is happening here seems so insincere, why would anyone want to start their married life with a fake wedding? Are people really so shallow?