Wedding Etiquette
Every good bride knows that weddings aren’t necessarily about the couple. Weddings are a time for family and friends to celebrate the couple and to have a little bit of free food while they’re at it. Having been to many perfect weddings, I’m a bit of a critic when it comes to the festivities surrounding people’s nuptials.
Last night I went to a wedding that, while beautiful and totally touching, was a bit lacking in consideration of the guests. First, the wedding was on a Thursday night starting at
7pm, giving me cause to worry about my beauty sleep before having to be at work at 6am the next morning. And as it was so late, and being that the invitation said nothing about a reception, we didn’t know whether to eat before we went or not. The wedding was outside overlooking a lake at sunset, which was gorgeous, but they had only about 3/4 the number of chairs needed for the guests who were there. After the beautiful ceremony, there was a haphazard receiving line which dumped guests out by the bar. Where we stood for over an hour sipping our $5 glasses of wine. Once the DJ managed to finagle us all into our seats he opened the floor to toasts, which lasted a good 15-20 minutes. When all was said and done, my table was excused last to the buffet and I finally sat down with food at about 9:15. By 9:45 half of the people at the wedding had gone leaving just a few people to support a dollar dance, which was really sad.
Now don’t get me wrong, it was a beautiful wedding, the reception was just gorgeous and the couple was really happy, but I really think a few simple changes like start time and something to snack on while we waited for dinner could have made the night.
Oh, and as a side note: I really take issue with people who put little cards with the invitation that say where they are registered. While it may seem that this is a convenience to guests, it really does come off as the bride and groom asking for a present. We’re smart, we can probably figure out on our own where you’re registered with about 5 minutes of searching on the Internet.
