Bride Intentionally Limits Seating During Reception To Encourage Guests To 'Mingle'
Her idea to have her guests all get to know each other did not go according to plan.
Mikhaylovskiy | Shutterstock Weddings can either bring out the best or the worst in people. But one thing's for sure, nearly every bride is trying to have a unique wedding experience. Maybe that's the problem. One guest attended a wedding that was strange all around, but got especially weird during the reception.
Apparently, the bride cared an awful lot about her guests socializing, because she didn’t provide enough seating during the reception. Of course, her sneaky trick to encourage mingling didn’t go over very well with guests who just wanted to sit down with their food.
A woman shared the story of a 'tacky' wedding she had been to.
One wedding guest took to Reddit’s r/WeddingShaming forum to tell the story of the strangest wedding she had been to. “A few years back I was invited to the wedding of a woman whose kids had gone to school with mine,” she began. “I wasn’t particularly close with the bride but went with my oldest kid as my plus one.”
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The red flags began to pop up almost immediately. “Ceremony was supposed to be at 3:00 with dinner afterwards. We arrived at 2:30 and walked in to the ceremony already going on.”
As bizarre as this was, the bride saw no problem with it. “The bride later told me, ‘We thought everyone was already there so we just went with it,’” she explained. Of course, everyone was not there. “Probably 15 [to] 20 more people came in after we did and looked as confused as me,” she continued. “Little weird, but whatever.”
Next, guests were subjected to a reception that intentionally lacked sufficient seating for all of them.
“After the brief ceremony (maybe 20 minutes), we went into the room for the reception and right away I see it’s way too small for the amount of people there,” the guest recalled. “There were easily 125 guests and the room was set up with tables and chairs for maybe 50 people.”
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The dinner sounded like it was set up nicely, but it didn’t change the awkward atmosphere. She continued, “There was a ton of food served in a buffet style which was a free-for-all. Since not everyone could sit, everyone was just wandering around grabbing food, then trying to find a surface to put their plates/drinks on.”
As for this particular guest, she and her child found a pretty good spot to sit, but gave it up for a charitable reason. “My kid and I wedged into a corner with a windowsill to use as a table,” she recounted. “Then I see the bride’s elderly father looking around with a full plate with nowhere to sit and we gave up our spot so the poor man didn’t have to sit on the [expletive] floor.”
As for the bride, she couldn’t have been less concerned. “Bride is oblivious, laughing and loudly telling people to ‘get over it and mingle’ in a cramped room with nowhere to sit or put your plate down,” she said. “We ate quickly and left after giving the couple well wishes, and as we were leaving a big group was leaving as well who were loudly complaining.”
Enough seating for guests is important at weddings.
Event planning company Modern Vintage Events pointed out that a couple really doesn’t have to have a chair for every guest since it will save them money and perhaps match the vibe they’re going for better. They still recommended having “‘perching’ spots” and other places where guests could rest, though, even for a cocktail party reception.
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There's no denying that brides want their guests to socialize and create a party atmosphere, but you know what else guests want? A home base in the form of a seat to put their purse, jacket, or wrap on. It's super helpful to sit after dancing, and let's not even pretend that juggling a plate, drink, and purse is easy to do. And what about elderly guests like the bride's father? Seating is important.
To add insult to injury, there wasn't actually enough space for everyone in the room despite the seating snafu. Too little space and not enough chairs do not create an environment for mingling. It creates a party no one wants to attend.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
