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Snarky Brides
Newborndoc2008
member
Bad wedding snark!
I attended a wedding a couple weeks ago that was so cringe worthy I need to vent.
Ceremony:
- Outdoors. In late summer. During a tornado watch. There was a plan B location available, but the couple refused to use it as they were "having a short ceremony and it isn't raining." So we got to enjoy 45-60 minutes outdoors in 25+ mph winds, persistent thunder, at least one bolt of lightning, and did I mention the neighboring town's tornado siren? Not that we could hear over the wind if we wanted to, but most guests were busy watching for funnel clouds rather than watching the ceremony
- Lack of chairs. They had enough chairs for 20% of the guests during the ceremony. 20%! I was forewarned so elected to wear flats but there were many grumpy women from standing in stilettos for 45-60 minutes. There was no possible way to fit the number of chairs they needed into the ceremony space, but "it's so pretty" they didn't want a different venue
Reception:
- Oh the gap. The ceremony and reception were on the same property about a 5 minute walk apart. Yet there was an hour between the end of the ceremony and the beginning of the cocktails and food. Again with no chairs! People were resorting to use of the vending machine because they were thirsty. I guess they had planned for people to tour the gardens between the ceremony and reception. I wouldn't want to do that in good weather in summer all dressed up let alone with the tornado watch!
- Cash bar. Or at least partial cash bar. There was an hour of completely hosted open bar. Then 2 hours of beer and wine. Then entirely cash. At least there was a sign on the bar so everyone loaded up with 2-3 drinks on the way in to dinner (aka not a way to save money for the couple)
- No assigned seating. I guess it's technically not bad etiquette but with almost 200 guests and 4 extra chairs there was a lot of shuffling to get people seated before dinner. At least it was table side ordering instead of a buffet. Shuffling and carrying food would have been a disaster.
No wonder 80% of the guests were gone by 9 pm.
And as always, the couple thought everything was great while several people whispered on the poor organization and hosting that were happening. Had husband not been in the bridal party I might have suddenly become ill that weekend and had to decline. Thank you ladies for pointing out all of these moves as bad etiquette repeatedly so we avoided all of them in our own wedding last year.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Bad wedding snark!
Now I have to make one. ----------BOXES----------Pro-tip-- assigning seats is pretty overkill but assigning tables is most helpful to guests. Don't worry too much if your guests don't fit into pretty packages of 8 or 10; it's ok (assuming you have enough tables and space) if the tables don't all have an equal number of people. If you want more advice I'm sure there are plenty of threads on it. It took me less than an hour and an excel sheet with about 69 total people.
Literally.
But it's not stressful or annoying. And, you taking the time to group people in acceptable bunches will avoid the stress and annoyance on guests when they find saved seats, nowhere to sit with who they want to sit with, odd numbers of seats, carrying around plates awkwardly, etc.
Now a cousin of DH's didn't have a seating chart either but had maybe 1 or 2 extra chairs for about 100 guests. That was awkward. We had to squeeze onto an end so we could sit by people we knew. One of the tables was out about 20 feet away from the tent and the bride's extended family ended up out there and pissed off because the tables weren't all together and they felt slighted in the "cheap seats".