Originally Posted by chi-o_cat
This wasn’t really the “worst wedding”, but it was memorable, in a negative way, due to poor communication between the couple and the guests. I was invited to a wedding a few years back. It was someone I’d been friends with, and she moved to another city a few hours away. The invitation stated the ceremony would be held at a church in their new city, with lunch to follow at a nearby Olive Garden.
So we drove down for the wedding, they had the ceremony, and then afterwards, there was a table set up in the lobby of the church. This was a very small church- it did not appear to have a fellowship hall or similar room, this was just in the area between the front doors and the sanctuary. There was punch and cake all sort of snacks and finger foods. I was thinking, Hmmm, this is weird to have so much food out, when we’re all going to Olive Garden, but I figured it was just to tide us over while the couple, their attendants and the families did all the photography in the sanctuary. And would we be eating the cake before going to have lunch? Okay, that’s cool, maybe Olive Garden wouldn’t allow them to bring in their own cake. After the photo session, everyone joined us in the lobby, and more snacks were eaten. At this point I was starting to suspect that the reception had been moved and this was it. Eventually I heard someone (one of the mothers?) say something to someone about how much money they were saving by not having the Olive Garden lunch. I discreetly told my date to go ahead and have more snacks, since this was our lunch. I was standing at the food table, talking to one of the other guests, and I commented on one of the food items, and asked if he’d tried them. He said “I haven’t been eating much of this, I’m saving my appetite for Olive Garden.” So I had to tell him (a total stranger, by the way), that there wasn’t going to be an Olive Garden. That was so awkward!
There’s nothing wrong with punch & snacks in the church as your reception. But if you send out invites stating one thing, and then change to something else without even telling the guests- just leaving them to figure it out themselves, that’s not cool. Even a line in the program like “The couple invites you to share punch and refreshments in the lobby after the ceremony” would have clued us in about what we’d be doing.
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