This post by Saintly Design Company appeared recently in my Instagram feed. The video begins like this:

Immediately afterward, there’s a single-item list:

I understand the thinking behind it in some ways: she wants to follow church guidelines to be a good Catholic. But she wants to be a good Catholic in order, in her eyes, to please a god. And in order to do this, if her friend decides to have a beach wedding, this woman won’t be able to attend.

Is it that simple? What’s stopping her? Nothing — just she herself. It seems somewhat sanctimonious at worse and selfish at best. Imagine: a good friend invites her to her wedding and her response is, “You’re having it on a beach, so I’m afraid I can’t come.”

I think if someone responded to me that way, I’d have to question the nature of their friendship. And that’s the real tragedy of situations like this: it forces and even justifies people putting ritual above relationships, putting faith above friendships.