We went to a wedding this weekend, and to all the lurkers out there - it is very important to have a seat for every butt. I'll start from the beginning.
I lost the invitation for the wedding, so I asked FI's cousin who told me the ceremony started at 6:30. Perfect. We planned out our day on Saturday so that we could get there a bit early and have some time to hang out at the hotel. Of course, we end up running late, with us arriving at 6. NBD, I put my makeup on in the car, my hair was done, I would just need to throw on my dress and shoes on at the hotel. We pick up FMIL who happened to bring her invitation with her, and I glanced at it - it said ceremony start time 6PM. So now I'm freaking out because we're definitely gonna miss the ceremony! Turns out - they put 6PM on the invitations, with the intention to start at 630. Apparently, cousin asked the FOB and he told him the ceremony was at 630 which is why he relayed that to us. Now I'm worried about ours, because it is the norm for people in our families to do that. I think there is going to have to be a lot of word of mouth spreading so people know that they need to show up ON TIME for ours.
Anyways, the ceremony was lovely. The bride was beautiful, and cocktail hour was great. Then we get moved to the reception site. As soon as I walked into the room, one of FI's cousins calls me over and hisses "Pinkcow, there aren't any chairs for us!"Now, I knew this in advance because the groom told us over Easter. Clearly, not everyone knew. I told her that I knew, and that they were only having seating for the elderly and disabled" and she said, "yea and look at all those young people that got a table!"
Basically, when you walked into the room, to the left there were a few tables set up with centerpieces, etc. To the right were high cocktail tables. So more than half the guests did not have a seat.Dinner was served buffet style, and we had to eat standing. There was a couch right outside the reception room, on the way to the buffet room, and some people managed to snag seats to eat. I don't even think there were enough high tables for all of the guests.Let me tell you, you don't realize how important sitting is until you attend a wedding without seats. We basically stood during all the spotlight dances, and a (long) video speech that the groom had pre-recorded (which was a bit weird. He said something about capturing the bride's poop in little bottles and storing it on shelves. 15 years worth. I think this was an inside joke but I didn't really get it). Not even an hour into the reception, and girls were walking and dancing around barefoot.
Other than that, the wedding was overall fun.We're a fun bunch and made the best of it, but having a seat would have been really nice. Several people came up to me during the night asking if we would be having seats at our wedding (at least 60% of the guests there will be at our wedding). And people will never tell the bride and groom how they felt - but yea, people will judge you for that. They will judge hard.