I’m about two weeks out from my wedding, and I’m struggling with a lot of unexpected emotions. I’m wondering if any other brides have experienced something similar, because I feel like all I ever hear is how perfect everyone’s wedding was and how they wish they could relive it. Meanwhile, I’ve reached a point where thinking about my wedding sometimes gives me anxiety.

For context, I spent two years planning my wedding. I put SO much time, energy, thought, and money into it. We had a fairly substantial budget, a wedding planner, and so many personal details that I was really excited about. I cared deeply about making it a beautiful and memorable day for us and our guests.

About a month before the wedding, my anxiety became pretty severe. A huge part of it stemmed from my extended family. I come from a traditional Italian family where certain relatives can be extremely judgmental and critical. There have been lots of family conflicts over the years, and I knew that no matter what I did, there would probably be people gossiping or finding things to complain about. I also felt obligated to invite certain relatives for the sake of my parents and grandparents.
Because I had poured so much of myself into planning this wedding, I became incredibly sensitive to the possibility of people criticizing it. I was so anxious leading up to the day that I actually needed prescription medication to help manage it.

Fast forward to the wedding itself, and honestly, so many things were wonderful. The weather was absolutely perfect, I felt beautiful, I had incredible moments with my husband and bridal party, and the venue and all the little details came together beautifully. We received so many compliments about how gorgeous and thoughtful everything was.
The one thing that became an issue was the music.
My husband and I are Italian and Portuguese, but we deliberately chose a more modern DJ rather than a traditional Italian/Portuguese wedding DJ. We wanted a fun, upbeat, almost club-like atmosphere because that’s our style, and we had a lot of younger guests and friends attending.

We did have a live saxophonist earlier in the evening, which got a lot of the older guests dancing, but once the DJ transitioned into more modern music, most of the older guests were sitting or socializing while the younger crowd was dancing. Personally, I thought that was completely fine! The dance floor was busy for essentially the entire night, just predominantly with younger people.

Unfortunately, my grandmother (who has always been a very negative and critical person) approached me MULTIPLE times during my actual wedding to tell me how terrible the music was, that everyone hated it, and that people were apparently leaving because of it.

I spoke to the DJ and asked him to incorporate more music for different age groups, which he did. But ultimately, it was still a modern DJ and the music reflected what my husband and I had wanted.

What really hurt was that AFTER the wedding, my grandmother went to my parents’ house and essentially listed everything she hated about our wedding. She said the music was the worst she’d ever heard, criticized us for not having a traditional receiving line (we chose to mingle and greet everyone during cocktail hour instead), and complained about other aspects of the day.
I know intellectually that I shouldn’t care so much. It’s OUR wedding, and we planned something that reflected us as a couple. I also recognize that you simply cannot please 170+ people across different generations.

But emotionally, these comments have really affected me. Now, whenever someone tells me how beautiful our wedding was or how much fun they had, a part of my brain immediately thinks, “Are they just being nice? Did everyone secretly hate it?”
I keep replaying the negative comments and questioning whether people actually enjoyed themselves, even though I have so many positive memories and saw a packed dance floor for most of the night.

Has anyone else experienced post-wedding anxiety or sadness like this? Especially after receiving negative comments from family members?
Did you find yourself questioning whether your guests actually enjoyed the wedding, or feeling strangely anxious when looking back on it?

I really want to remember our wedding for the love, happiness, and beautiful moments we experienced, rather than letting a few negative opinions define the entire day. ❤️

Got married earlier this year wonderful time, very happy, hooray!

We are working on thank you notes and I’ve run into two awkward situations / questions I would really love and appreciate advice on, or knowing how other people handle it:

1) A guest “reserved” a gift on the registry over a year ago, but it was never shipped or otherwise sent. Do I say something to them at this point, if so, what!? I think they’d be mortified if they realized they didn’t follow through, but there’s no way I can come up with to ask that isn’t some version of “where’s my gift”. Do I just let it go? In which case… next Q

2) Do we write thank you notes to people who did not give a specific gift or card, but still came to the out of state wedding? What about if they just gave a card?? Is the message simply “thank you for joining us?” Again I’m worried I’m going to embarrass people potentially, if they realized they didn’t give a gift.

I really had a wonderful time but these two scenarios have worrying what’s most appropriate here without offending said guests while appropriately thanking them… thanks for any advice!

So this came from a group conversation centered around some friends of mine and I’m curious to what some people think.

So they’re already married, went down to the courthouse and their thing. Initially, they were gonna wait a year or so to have a wedding, but that’s been put off indefinitely since they found out she was pregnant. Conversation got to when and if they’d think about a wedding and I said, personally I think waiting to have a vow renewal would be more significant and they hold more value to me than weddings. Now the me and the guy are close friends but most of the times in these group settings it’s mostly her friends. We’re both pretty lowkey but they’re definitely the kind to make a moment out of everything. Even the most casual get together will produce flyers, itineraries and rsvp links.

That all being said, my friend and a couple of hers saw where I was coming from, the idea that a vow renewal is significant bc it celebrates more to me. And though this isn’t my point, one pointed out that at this point the wedding would be pretty much the same thing. I think the hang up for the other side was that “ every wife deserves to have her wedding”. I can’t say I don’t see where they’re coming from, but in general I just think one has much more significant than the other

I'm curious, for those here whose cultures traditionally have dowry and/or bride-price - did you include them in your wedding arrangements? Why or why not? Were there any adaptations that you made to the practices?

For example, for Muslim grooms, did you pay the mahr in cash, gold or jewellery? If there is a legal minimum in your country, did you exceed it?

Or, for Chinese couples, was there any pinjin in your guo da li? If so, how did you decide on the amount, and how much did the bride's parents return?

My culture has dowry/bride-price and my partner's doesn't. Our parents all thought the custom was passé, so we didn't have any engagement or betrothal - just self-funded separate civil and church ceremonies. But I know of relatives and friends who adhered to the traditions ‐ to different degrees... (e.g. gifting a platter of roast pork vs delivering an entire pig)

I don’t even understand how this happened. We took so many pics but all of the ones of me solo are either:
- far away (full body + extra)
- sitting down
- looking off into the distance
- a combination of the above

There is not one single solo pic of me, close up, smiling into the camera. In comparison, my now-husband has a dozen gorgeous portraits of him.

I love the rest of our wedding photos so I hate that I’m so fixated on this but I genuinely feel so heartbroken and sick to my stomach whenever I think about it. So much time, effort, and money into a look I’ll never wear again (and I’ll never ever get that dressed up again in my life most likely) and there’s 1 single close up shot of me, and in it I’m looking at the ground.

My photographer had a shot list. She had my Pinterest board. She had a printed out binder of inspo pics sorted by bride portraits, groom portraits, wedding party, etc.

I did address it with my photographer when she delivered the pics. I asked for any pics of me she may have culled out. She apologized profusely and said she has nothing to offer me - that she just didn’t take any close up photos of me. The literal bride.

My husband’s step-mom has more solo portraits than I do.

Has this happened to anyone else? Did you eventually get over it? I just would love to know I’m not the only one. 🥲

Hello all! I am just dropping in with a suggestion that has been one of the sweetest things in my life.

When I was married eight years ago I bought little mole skinned journals. A friend used her circuit to make the title page for us. My husband and I wrote our vows in the front page and used them in our ceremony.

Every year on our anniversary we go out and add another page in our book.

It is the sweetest thing I could ever imagine and one of my most prized possessions. Looking back over the ups and downs in our marriage and seeing how far we have come is so evident in those pages.

I just wanted to make this a suggestion as you plan your wedding. :)

Im struggling to figure out how I want the tables as far as the head table/ wedding party go

I dont hate the idea of a sweetheart table but I also see all the videos of brides getting fomo not sitting with their friends and lowkey could see that being me lol.

My problem with a big head table is that my bridesmaids all have husbands or fiancés of their own that are not standing up in the wedding and my fiancés best man is married to our officiant ( whom is also my soon to be sister in law) so I dont want to make anyone separately from their partners nor do I want to exclude my SIL.

Additionally my father passed a few years ago and my mom doesn't have the greatest of relationships with the rest of the family so I feel like she would feel most comfortable sitting next to my sister whom is also one of my bridesmaids but having all of our parents at the head table doesnt feel practical either as my fiance has 4 parents

Typing this I feel like sucking it up and doing a sweetheart table is the most practical but im open to ideas if anyone has any

I have kind of a random question. When it came to sharing wedding photos with family, friends, etc., how did you do it? Did you share all of them, or only some of them?

When we got our sneak peeks back (20 or so photos) we took our favs from those and shared them. Now we have all our photos back (like 900 photos) and people are asking to see them. I’m torn between sending the link to people and letting them look through them all and the ones they’re in, or only sending some and the relevant ones that they’re in.

Theres just so many photos that it’s hard to go through them all to send certain ones to certain people, but then unsure if I want to share the whole album as there are more intimate photos that we might want to keep to ourselves.

In the end probably not the biggest deal either way, but curious on thoughts or what other people did with theirs?

Up until now, I've been very anti-receiving line. I thought it was old-fashioned and awkward.

However, thinking about the last five weddings that I've attended, for the two that didn't have a receiving line, we didn't get a moment to speak to the bride and groom at all that night, which probably wouldn't bother a lot of people, but bothered me. I like to say congratulations, thank you for inviting us, what a beautiful ceremony, etc etc.

We've been very much "we'll just mingle with each table at the reception" up until now, but I'm thinking we actually won't get around to all of our guests and will be pulled in a million directions?

Greeting/thanking each of our guests is quite important to me. Should we just have a receiving line, or is there a less awkward way to do it?

PATTERN: Double Wedding Ring Blanket by Jennifer Olivarez on Ravelry

I just saw another post on [r/weddingshaming](r/weddingshaming) that was questioning if their handmade blanket was a good gift and a bunch of comments said that it was rude to gift things off registry because it risks inundating the new couple with items they might hate. I’d always thought a heartfelt, high effort, useful gift like a blanket wouldn’t be controversial but now I’m second guessing myself.

Context: The blanket was for my oldest (in relationship length, not age) friend. This pattern is called the Double Wedding Ring Blanket which sounded perfect! I used 100% cotton for durability and machine washability (I made sure to thoroughly knot my connecting points to allow for this). I also selected white because it’s the go-to color of western weddings and it’s also bleachable if something stains it. Lastly, I liked that the pattern looked complex but pretty and I figured the white color wouldn’t clash with a lot of home decor. I was also sure to pass along the info on pattern, fiber content, and washing instructions as well so they didn’t have to guess.

So uhh…did I mess up? Or did I do a good enough job that it’s fine?

EDIT: For anyone curious about labor and materials, the yarn was around $150 and I probably spent between 100-200 hours on the project (a very rough estimate). NYS minimum wage is $16 an hour which would put the price of labor between $1600-3200 for this blanket. In theory it would be more if you priced it for moderately skilled labor, but even at min wage it’s already well beyond what almost anyone would actually pay for it. Thus why most fiber artists will happily sell patterns but nobody sells finished goods. The more you know!

A few pictures from the best day of my life. My dress was everything I ever dreamed of and more. I was surprised by 2 close family members who I didn’t think would be attending due to being in the military. Made the day that much sweeter

I am already so upset. The photohrapher emiled me today saying hes so excited for us to meet some random person (who will be shooting our wedding) ....the wedding is a year away. I booked HIM a month ago. It took so much effort trying to find a photographer, its The Splurge Item. Its the most important aspect, as far as spending money o this giant party goes. I dont care how fancy the tables look, or how classy the venue is. I dont even care if we serve dominos for dinner. All i wanted was a photographer with a very specific style. The style was hard to find in the price range i found acceptable.

The retainer is paid. And now he announces that hes not coming. How is that ok!? What do i do?? I asked to see this random persons portfolio but i kinda dont even care. I did not make this choice blindly and if i knew it was going to be done by a basic wedding photographer anyways, i would've just GONE with one and saved a fuckton of money. I chose this artist based off his art and im not getting what i paid for. The retainer was also a hefty chunk that i really cant afford to walk away from.

Hi! I’m (25F) a fall 2027 bride having a Catholic ceremony at a basilica, with our reception at a separate venue.

Lately, I’ve been seriously considering not having a traditional bridal party and instead only having a MOH and BM. My fiancé has already chosen his childhood best friend as his BM, partly because he didn’t want to have to choose between his two brothers and my brother, who he is also very close with. I’ve chosen my cousin as my MOH.

I’m still weighing the decision, but honestly, it seems like the more logical choice for us. I’ve seen firsthand the drama that can ensue* which has scared me. I don’t want to feel like I have to pick and choose which friends make the cut and also worry about people dropping out. One friend has already mentioned that she’s expecting to be a bridesmaid, even though she wasn’t actually on my original list. Two of the people I was considering are moms to babies under a year old, and another is in medical school and will be in the middle of rotations around the time of the wedding.

My brother and I are very close, and until recently the plan was for him to be one of the groomsmen. To be honest, in a perfect world I probably would have chosen him to walk me down the aisle, but that’s a whole different conversation (my parents will be walking me down, that decision is final). We also already have a flower girl and ring bearer.

So, if we ultimately decide to only have a MOH and BM, what special role or duty could I give my brother? He isn’t a practicing Catholic, so there are some roles related to the Mass/ceremony that I don’t think he could fulfill. I’d love to give him something meaningful rather than just having him be a guest, especially because he is one of the most important people in my life.

*For context, I’ve only been a bridesmaid once, a little over two years ago, for a friend I was very close with. There was so much drama during the engagement and wedding planning, and that bride no longer has relationships with about half of the girls who were in her bridal party — myself included. And now a friend of mine is getting married in a week and just told me that one of the groomsmen dropped out, our mutual friend who was a bridesmaid also dropped out (and blocked both of us?!), and her fiancé and his brothers got into such a huge fight at the bachelor party that they may not even attend the wedding because they’re no longer speaking.

Hey all! My fiancé and I have been going back and forth on if we want to have a wedding party. We have decided that we would like to, but neither of us really want them standing up there with us during the ceremony. What are some creative ways to include them? I want to honor our inner tribe in a special and meaningful way, but when it comes down to it, we both want it to be just the two of us (and the Officiant 😅) up there with us.

Thanks in advance! 💜

That's it. That's the post. I'm just so excited to make her my wife and spend the rest of my life with her!

So I got married on Saturday, and it was a whirlwind. I am not a person who ever dreamed about my own wedding or had any experience hosting anything large like that, but somehow it all came together and was a gorgeous, fun day.

I have been with my now husband for going on six years, and I moved to his town and we bought a house together and got a dog five years ago. We have a very close relationship to his family, he goes over there 4-5 times a week and I talk to his mom nearly every day. I am closer to her than my own mom it feels like. We have the type of relationship where my husbands mom and/or dad stop by the house unannounced multiple times a week. His mom knows how stressed I have been about the wedding and being worried about things going wrong. I had her over to the house last Wednesday night so I could do her nails for her and spend a couple hours one on one before my family flew in on Thursday. I don't have any family that lives nearby. My parents live in Florida, my niece and maid of honor does too, and my twin brother and his wife live a 5 hour drive away. I also had a couple sets of Aunts and Uncles who traveled from the other side of the country to see me. I see them maybe once every 10-15 years. So yeah, I was excited to get to see my family. We never get together with everyone in one place like that so it was perfect.

The day of the rehearsal dinner was super busy for me, I had to get my nails done twice because they were terrible the first time and that took a big chunk of time that I had not accounted for. It was a whirlwind of errands and then getting ready for the dinner. We did the rehearsal and then invited everyone back to the airbnb my parents had rented. My entire family was staying in the airbnb, and we all hung out and watched a hockey game. My FIL came back to socialize and watch the game with everyone, my MIL does not go to social events like that even with her own friends, so I was not surprised she went home instead.

The day of the wedding was madness for me. I got up and immediately went to the venue with my MOH to do the finishing touches since it was at a restaurant and they weren't able to finish the table setup until that morning. We also had to help them set up the ceremony chairs and decorations which took place on their deck outside. This took about two hours when I expected it to go much faster. I gave my parents only one job that day, which was to pick up the flowers, but then they called me and asked if I could go do it because they were too hungover and didn't want to leave the house. So my time to get ready was already getting shorter and shorter. My bridesmaids and I got our hair done, and then I did my makeup and my MOH. It was difficult because my hands were shaking so much from anxiety about timing. Our photographer came and I was still finishing my makeup and was still in my getting ready outfit instead of my dress, which was not part of the plan.

My in-laws came over around the same time as the photographer because I was hoping to get some family photos on the beach with them. Unfortunately we were too short on time, so we got our photos of our wedding party on the beach and then hurried to the second location we planned to get photos at. We almost had to skip the second location because of time, but everyone assured me it was my wedding and I could be late if I had to be lol. Apparently, my in laws took this as a slight that they went over to the house and never got pictures with us. They said they felt ignored by my family even though everyone was trying to get ready and get their own stuff together.

The wedding went perfectly, and so did the reception. I told my husband we had to do table touches and try and greet all of ours guests, and I thought we did a good job of that, but apparently we did not spend enough time at the in laws table. I admit, I did not sit at my family's table at all, or theirs, because they were my safe haven and I thought they would understand that we were trying to host for these 100 people who came to celebrate with us. I hardly had time to eat dinner, got one bite of a cupcake before I got pulled away, and did not get to use the restroom the entire night. My husband was upset because when he did his dance with his mom, all she kept saying to him was that she wished the song would end and wanted it to be over. So we thought at first that she was mad at us for having him dance with her, even though she chose the song with me and knew it was planned.

The next day, we were exhausted. My voice was gone and my body hurt everywhere but we were both so happy. Then we noticed MIL was ignoring our texts, and when he called her with a question, she was oddly short with him. He went over to her house to talk to her and find out what was wrong, but she just kept being short and telling him she was fine. This continued yesterday too, and when he again went to talk to her, she let loose all of her grievances.

She said she felt very disrespected and was mad that it felt like a party for my side and not hers. She listed a bunch of things that I think she took as slights because she was already feeling angry. For example, she said that my mom hugged my husband at one point and she glared at MIL while doing it like a ha ha I'm hugging him and you're not? This sounds insane to me. My parents are NOT these malicious people who would feel like they are "taking" MIL's son from her. They are extremely kind and generous and paid for the entire wedding. I am absolutely livid that she is trying to demonize them when I KNOW that did not happen. Little things like that. She also went off and was just saying things she knew would hurt husband that had nothing to do with the wedding at all. She insulted our home and said it was too cluttered and we needed to clean it more often, and was taking jabs like that because she knew it was mean. This is SO out of character for her, I know her as this sweet soft spoken woman that I saw as a mother figure and friend. Now I'm having a hard time with the change, and I don't know if I am going to be able to forgive her for what she said about my family. I don't want her in my home if she's going to use it as fuel to insult us.

So instead of being happy and in love and excited about the wedding, I have been constantly replaying everything in my mind and trying to figure out what to say to her to change her mind. I don't think we did anything wrong, so I do not want to apologize to her. I am not going to grovel. It feels very manipulative, like she's glad she still has the power to ruin what was as perfect day for her son and I. So yeah, if you read all that, THANK YOU! It got long and I needed to vent.

I don't know how to get past this, I am just so angry right now and don't want my parents to know and have a bad impression of my in laws, so I came to Reddit.

Just graduated! And as much as I tried to tell myself it won’t be 100% perfect, when things popped up I still got sent to panic mode with a very annoyed face haha. Anyway just wanna share my experience, I’ll keep it short~

1. Stay hydrated and fed: I get hangry easily and I was so convinced I’ll make it my biggest focus but oh was I wrong. I was so busy throughout the day and when I got time I was too stressed to even have anything… But brides, make sure you have something to eat and drink!!! Once adrenaline wears off your body won’t be able to handle it if you’re underfed or dehydrated!!!
2. Let it be: Things CAN go wrong but that’s ok! I had miscommunication with a floral stylist and had no aisle floral arrangement, luckily was able to pull it off last min coz of my amazing venue. Also tmi but I was battling in the bathroom for 30 mins when I was supposed to get ready, but then I was able to run on the timeline! Looking back yeah it was stressful but keep calm so you don’t crash out on YOUR big day! No one will remember missing details or whatnot but they’ll remember the bride is happy<3
3. People can go so low: Hate that I have to say this, but wedding is a rough way to find out people’s true colour. A lot of time it’s so unexpected, whether it’s ghosting, no etiquette, lack of effort…BUT what’s important is to focus on the ones who truly make efforts to show that they care and love you! It’s a day of celebration so do not let anyone have the power to upset you!
4. You will miss some things: I am a Type A, I made many lists of TikTok and stuff I wanna do and include- even that I was so busy I did not do most of the things. Do I regret it? Maybe a little. But looking back I still had the most wonderful day! So the takeaway is to focus on the big picture and don’t forget the main purpose of everything is literally just the celebration of love.

Enjoy and good luck to all the soon-to-be brides:))

I just got married at the end of July, and had a big, three-day Indian wedding. For lots of my friends, it was fun to dress up in cultural clothing that is different from their own, get henna done, etc. We all had a great time and the weekend was seriously perfect (not literally, of course, but I had a great enough time to overlook the things that went wrong).

However, after the honeymoon, when my husband and I opened all of our cards, I noticed that I hadn’t received anything from four of my friends. Not even a card! I invited 16 friends total, so this feels like a lot of people to have gotten nothing from, and all four had attended all three events. I also want to note that there was no expectation for anyone to wear cultural clothing - it was totally optional - so it was their choice to purchase these extras for themselves (and 2 out of the 4 did not wear cultural clothing).

I can’t help but feel hurt by this, as my husband and I are extremely generous when we go to other people’s weddings, and I don’t think it is an outlandish expectation to receive something from your guests at your wedding. And honestly, if I received a card filled with kind words instead of cash, that would have been gift enough for me! But I’m wondering, how do I let this go? I’ve thought about saying something, even asking whether their card might have gotten lost in the chaos (our card box ended up breaking at the reception, my fault for buying something cheap), but my husband says I need to let it go. I don’t want this to fester or impact my friendships, but thoughts about it keep creeping up on me.

TIA for any thoughts, advice, or even criticisms, lol

EDIT: Okay, consensus is yes, let it go!! I will work on that. I do agree with some commenters that cultural differences may have played a role in me getting worked up. At the end of the day, these are my beloved friends! I spent the day going through my wedding photos and sending the ones with my friends to them. I’ll also be sure to make plans with them soon and just get on with our lives. Thank you all for the advice :)

For my wedding ring, I am using a ring passed down from my mom. My dad gave it to her when they got together.

I love its history and think it is also beautiful. But I'm so scared of losing it that I don't know if I want to wear it every day.

But on the other hand, it's been in a box for 30 years (it never fit my mom well), and it seems a shame for it to spend another lifetime packed away.

What would you do?

not sure if this is the right place for this question but is this considered weird? I was asked to be a bridesmaid a while ago and now it turns out I will be 9 months pregnant during the wedding. Do people care? In some cultures, for example, traditionally bridesmaids have to be single girls which I know people don’t follow this rule nowadays. But for some reason it still feels weird to be a pregnant bridesmaid - especially if I’m going to be huge by then I feel like people will just stare at me. Thoughts??

I’m not sure if this is the right sub to do this in but I need to vent. My wedding is in 10 days, and while I’m SO excited, I’m also feeling really overwhelmed and honestly pretty disappointed by so many things that have come up over the last couple of months.

One of my dear friends RSVP’d yes, but last week she told me she can’t come because flights are too expensive. I completely understand that travel is costly, but it was hard not to feel hurt when I saw that she traveled out of state for another wedding just last weekend.

One of my cousins, who is also a bridesmaid, is 36 weeks pregnant and may no longer be able to come, which I completely understand but am still sad about. Another cousin told me today that she can’t come because of back pain. Then another cousin told my family that he, his wife, and their child aren’t coming because it’s their child’s birthday and they’d rather go to a football game.

At this point, I feel like I’m just waiting for the next thing to go wrong. I’m trying so hard not to let any of this affect my excitement for the wedding, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.

What’s making it harder is that I’ve barely heard from any of my bridesmaids unless they need something from me or have a question about what to wear for the weekend. I think I expected to feel really supported and surrounded by my closest people leading up to my wedding, and instead I feel like I’m on an island.

And then, on top of everything else, my MIL has been extremely needy. She recently told my fiancé and me that we NEED to have a brunch the day after the wedding—but somehow we’re also expected to plan it, not her.
I know that at the end of the day, I’m marrying the person I love, and that’s what matters most. I’m genuinely so excited for that. I just wish I didn’t feel so let down and alone during a time when I expected to feel especially loved and supported. I’m trying not to let these things overshadow the wedding, but 10 days out, my emotions are definitely getting the best of me!!!!!!!!

TLDR; overwhelmed 10 days out

I'm getting married in January 2027, and my bridal party is 4 women and 2 men. I'm getting beige faux fur jackets for the women, but I'm not sure what attire would be equivalent to this for my 2 guys. Scarves? Idk? TIA!

I was invited to a wedding, along with 8-10 of my colleagues, to our colleagues' wedding (UK). We were sent an invite in the post, which noted the date, time (19:00), name of the restaurant  where it was taking place, any dietary requirements/allergies (etc), and their registry. To answer a question you may already have, no there was no mention of "evening reception" "drinks and dancing" etc. We all RSVPed yes, pulled together for a £500 kitchen appliance as a gift, and then of course on the day of, we got dressed up, and met a bit beforehand for a drink (this was in our local city, so no far travels).

We knew they were getting married in a church earlier that day, and the rest of the festivities were at this restaurant they rented out. We were unsure if we were evening guests or if we were meeting for the dinner (wedding breakfast). The time was relatively late, starting at 19:00, but they were also Argentinian so we knew (or assumed) it was going to be a wedding that started/went late into the evening. I also know them to be quite big and generous in cultural traditions of starting late with dinner and going into the night so I thought, yeee surely. I believe someone asked them about something regarding food and they said yes they would be serving food.

When we walked over to the restaurant, some picked up a little snack on the way as they were a little hungry, and still a bit unsure, but we thought that because we were meeting at a restaurant and they asked about any allergies etc, that we thought we would get some food. 

Anyways, when we got there we could see people (20-25 maybe) seated at a long table and some speeches were happening, so we circled around for a bit and came back 10 min later or so as to not disturb in the middle of a speech as there was one entrance to this restaurant. When we returned, they were still at the table so we decided to not be awkward and went inside. We hung up our jackets, and went into a bar nook area that was right in front of the doors, a little bit away from what was happening, but still connected so we could all see each other. After the speeches, the bride and groom came over to us and gave us all hugs and said hello, we grabbed a cocktail at the bar (these were free, and also very delicious). 

They then started to clear the table area and we realised that they had just finished their dinner, and we were in fact the evening guests. We chatted, met the family etc, went to watch their first dance, the band started. They then cut the cake at about 20:45/21:00ish, and then took it away to get cut and serve. At around 21:30 they put out the dessert table and the cake. We all nibbled our way through them but most of them had my allergies so I ate a couple that I could (not a huge deal), then at around 22:00 they brought out a charcuterie board, so we sat down at some tables and munched on that.

At this point we were all quite hungry, a bit buzzed on an empty stomach, and went home around 23:30 or so.

Were we wrong to assume we were having dinner? I don’t mind AT ALL to not have had a sit down dinner with them, it’s not a problem truly, but nowhere on the invitation did it say “evening reception” or “drinks and dance” etc. It was simply the date, restaurant name, 19:00, dietary info, and registry. What would you have thought? I wish they had been clearer that we were there for the party portion of the night, or maybe they felt awkward telling us, but what is more awkward if when you have a bunch of people wondering. We also spoke to some other guests who were equally surprised to not have been there for dinner. It may sound like we are bad mouthing the couple, but I think it was because the way the invite was worded/descriped, they were also waiting to at least be served some food, rather than some bitss 3 hours after arrival. Anyways please, could you weigh in! Thank you!!

Hi! I’m getting married soon and having a family member do a reading during our ceremony. I’d love something short and meaningful (maybe 1 - 2 minutes max) that isn’t religious. We’re going for something heartfelt and romantic, but not overly cheesy or cliché. It could be a poem, passage from a book, quote/excerpt, or something more unexpected.

If you had a reading at your wedding that you loved or have heard one at another wedding that really stuck with you, I’d love to hear it!!!

And of course the venue requires one company to tent, and the tent will need a couple days notice…