People Are Weird About Weddings

Hi everybody! We're back from our honeymoon and I'm ready to start blogging again! Our lightning-fast photographer already has ALL of our photos finished and up in the online gallery, and as soon as I get our disc, I can't wait to start writing the Octo-recaps. In the meantime, I have a bunch of posts on deck that I just never had the time to write before the wedding. I'd like to kick off this particular post with a quote.....

"I thought everyone I knew was normal and socially appropriate. And then I planned a wedding."--Bridesmaid Erica

Over the course of my engagement, I developed a little theory, one which was validated over and over and over, both in my experiences and those of other people. Here it is: some people, even ones who are normal and polite and sociable and predictable 99% of the time, say or do really weird stuff when it comes to weddings. A lot of my friends have gotten married in the past two years, and in an informal poll, I discovered that every single bride had at least one story about someone doing something really, really weird, awkward, or inappropriate regarding the wedding. Sometimes the weird wedding behavior is hilarious, sometimes it is decisively NOT hilarious, spanning all the way up to incredibly hurtful, surprising, and sometimes friendship-ending.

I definitely have a few People Are Weird About Weddings stories of my own, but given the not-very-anonymous nature of this blog, I don't really feel like I can give you all the dirty details. Suffice to say, we had a few guests to whom an RSVP was apparently a very loose and fluid thing, subject to change up until a matter of hours before the wedding began. You know, not like your meal had to be paid for or a seat found for you or anything. Ahem. Anyway.

However, I also have an anonymous PAWAW story to share from a friend (of the hilariously awkward variety). After her wedding ceremony, a friend of the bride's father approached the family. "Hey!" he said. "I just wanted to let you know, my wife has some errands to run and won't be able to make the dinner portion of the reception, so I'm bringing a work buddy of mine instead." True to his word, the man showed up at the reception with his uninvited buddy-date, who was a total stranger to the bride and her whole family. The buddy-date sat in the man's wife's seat and ate her dinner. About an hour later, the man's wife arrived, and the buddy-date moved over to a seat that was vacant due to a no-show guest (a whole other, very common variety of People Are Weird About Weddings). The buddy-date then stuck around and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening having cake and enjoying the open bar.

I mean, WTF? Who DOES that? From the wife's perspective, who peaces out of a wedding for an hour to run errands? From the husband's, who thinks it's appropriate to bring a stand-in stunt date who then doesn't leave when your actual invited date shows up? From the buddy-date's, who ON EARTH would think it's okay to attend a wedding under those circumstances?? So many WTFs it boggles the mind!

I have heard so many others (the bridesmaid who got belligerently drunk, ripped her bouquet to shreds, and screamed at the bride's mother!), and now I want to hear yours. What's your best People Are Weird About Weddings story (or, do you disagree with my theory)?