My sister moved in with her boyfriend in 2004 and my aunts decided that a) they finally believe her when she says she's never getting married and b) they want to throw a 'wedding' shower for her anyway. So they threw her a Shacking Up Shower. It was hilarious.

At the party she made a little speech to explain why they wouldn't get married: "We don't need the permission of a government we don't support or the blessings of a church we don't believe in to be in love." And they don't have kids. Kids is actually the only reason I got married, we both wanted kids and thought it might be difficult for them if we didn't have paperwork, so we got married. Plus I think he wanted the ceremony. Of course, you could have the ceremony without the paperwork.

(Sister's BF was invited to the Shacking Up Shower too but couldn't make it. The family's a bit dispersed and it was part of the Christmas get together that year, so scheduling wasn't an option. And possibly he could have made it by rearranging his plans slightly but chose not to. He wouldn't have enjoyed the attention.)