I was surprised this couple is black. Not to stereotype but it seemed like something that only a white and rich-enough-to-pretend-but-not-quite-there social climbing couple would do.
A more likely scenario would be him saying something like, “Don’t worry, babe; I got permission for us to have our wedding there.”
Didn’t read the article, so I may be off base here.
But there are no shortage of “prosperity theology” supposedly Christian televangelist snake oil salesmen out there. A prominent one with a largely Black following is
He’s quite a stirring speaker. Really.
I could see some not too smart people totally buying into the schtick that if you really really really want it and pray fervently (and donate just a bit), then God will totally fulfill your Big Dreams.
Anyone else notice this from the estate description?
an 800-foot (240-meter) bar.
Someone likes their booze.
Hey, that’s racist!
We will never have true equality until a black person can be just as big a dumbass as a white person.
Ah yes, similar to the “name it and claim it” theology. (referred to by some critics as “blab it and grab it”)
I would love to have an insiders view on things like this from the very beginning. I’m sure this guy didn’t just wake up one morning with this whole idea laid out in his head. What was the original spark that started the plan? How the plan evolved, slowly step by step all the way to the end.
Also, don’t you have to put down deposits for catering, band etc? Pay for the cake. How much did they shell out and how much did they plan to just fuck people over on payments. I wonder what kind of jobs this couple has.
“God is a lousy wedding planner”
He sucks at weather, too.
Interesting point. The article doesn’t mention caterers etc showing up; just the guy. Did they even hire anyone?
It even has a moat!!
OK, drainage ditch, but it’s a moat as far as I’m concerned! 
I know, right? Don’t people shell out a bunch of cash before weddings? What was he going to do if his plan worked, everyone showed up and there was no food, no band and no booze at the 240ft bar?
My understanding is that the guy (and presumably a bunch of friends) showed up in the morning to “set up”. That’s when they discovered that, amazingly, this huge mansion and pool and all its amenities were not, after all, free for anyone who felt like coming by. They would have had a few hours to try to cancel whatever services they had booked, not to mention all the guests. And I’m sure they would have been on the hook for the costs for everything they had booked.
Their wedding website, as recorded on the Wayback Machine, was surprisingly well done. Someone was taking this seriously – I’m assuming the now-pissed-off [former] bride.
It is from a site for wedding announcements. Probably provides templates. I found it by googling one of their names. They had already deleted it by then, but fortunately archive.org captured it. (I figure the header about a delay because of Covid was put up after the failed wedding but before the international attention, and that he/they still hoped to BS their way through this.)
I live not far from an area where ultra fatcats have $50million houses. Most of which sit apparently vacant year round. Only somebody who pays careful attention would notice the groundskeepers, housekeepers, and security on duty 24/7/365.
A goofball who only knew about life in the working class neighborhoods & suburbs might imagine these places were unused and unguarded, so one could “borrow” the grounds for an outdoor event and the owners would never be the wiser. Unimaginative plus naïve can bring bad decision-making to a whole new level.
There’s dumb, dumb as a box of rocks, and dumb as a truckload of rocks. These guys might have been up there in “railroad trainload of rocks” territory.
Please: 800-foot (240-meter) bar.
(My initial reaction was who the Hell even HAS an 800ft. bar unless you are at the Vegas Strip?)
This is indeed a proud moment of social progress for the Florida Man community.
Ah, the online world. Lending immortality to your moments of asshattery.
The 800-foot bar bothers me. I thought they were saying that the bar was 800 feet long but 800 square feet sounds more reasonable. I found the real estate listing for the house and it talks about a two-story “gentlemen’s bar”.
Is there even a bar that long in the world? As far as I can find online, the longest continuous bar is 405 feet, 10 inches.
Yeah, I think the news website had to have meant this instead. Unless the estate just so happens to have an 800 foot metal rod lying around.
Ah. Florida. ‘Gentlemen’s Bar’.
Stripper stage.
Courtney Hawkins. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtney_Hawkins_(American_football)
Ref the current thread on stuff people would want in their own personal cost-is-no-object mega-mansion, somehow that idea has never come up.
Sounds like a failure of imagination to me. 