And of course, fresh off of her baby girl's wonderfully planned event (Thanks very much in part to The Knot and a couple similar sites!), they were expecting things to be in order, and to have a good time celebrating with the bride and groom, who were friends of my Dad's...instead:
1. The wedding invitation stated that it was to begin at the church promptly at 4:30pm...It turns out that it started "promptly" at 6:30pm...
2. The reception venue was about a 25 minute drive from the Church, which wasn't too far. Except, after taking pictures and all, the bridal party did not arrive at the reception until 8pm...
3. Which meant that dinner was not served until 8:45pm...Since they had to wait until after the first dance and announcements and toasts and Blessing of the meal before dinner was served...she also said that there was only a cheese/fruit tray, which probably would have been fine for an hour, but that the hungry guests picked it clean, and were complaining about how long the food was taking. And the food arrived luke warm, when it came...
4. There was also no dancing! Mom said that the MC kept interrupting the music to make announcements, play games and asking guests to come up to the mic to wish the couple well. Which was a pity, she said, because the DJ was playing some pretty good tunes...and she said that on a couple of occasions, groups would migrate to the floor to dance, only to have the music interrupted for something by the MC...
5. After the garter toss, etc., Mom said that by 10pm, the cake still had not been cut, and that she and my Dad, and many other guests were tired at that point from sitting for hours, started to leave. She said the cake was very pretty, and it would have been nice to have had a piece!
And did I also mention - she said that there was no seating chart and no escort cards, for the guests, only for the head table, and that many "crashers" had come who did not RSVP. At one point, the coordinator came up to the mic and asked people to stand who did not RSVP, because there was not enough seating for guests who did! I couldn't even begin to imagine having that happen!!
So I told my Mom - that is why I was so glad to have found TK, and had the chance to make sure that our wedding and reception were enjoyable, not only for us, but also for our guests as well...Needless to say, Mom and Dad didn't have as much fun as they had hoped, but she said that the bride and groom and party looked very nice, and that the venue was decorated beautifully!
Now...let's see...how many knottie "no-no's" were violated in this one event???
Re: My Mom and Dad attended this wedding over the weekend...
Shmel's Blog
Thats terrible. Of course, I feel bad for the guests. But, the bride and groom ...I almost feel worse for. If it was my wedding, I would have felt AWFUL about a wedding that went so wrong. Dreaming about it forever and then for this to happen?!?! ugh...it would make me sick!
hopefully they can find peace with it...and I pray their wedding is not a sign of how their marriage will be.
All of that planning to have it all fall apart due to poor organizing. I'd be so sick...
Your post makes me realize how much I love The Knot & the April 2010 girls!
That was the sad part - it really seemed like the wedding starting two hours late threw everything else off - and Mom said that the cake and venue were both beautiful...I did ask her if the bride and groom had a good time, and she said they appeared to, but she probably wasn't going to show it if she wasn't...and oh yeah - her bustle broke, and she had to carry her train in one hand for most of the reception. Listening to Mom tell me about that wedding, it really did make me appreciate how smoothly ours went.
We had a couple of little bumps, but nothing that the guests would have noticed, just things "my OCD" (thanks, Laurms!) made me notice!
Post-Wedding Life Blog!
A10 Siggy Challenge: Next Vacation Destination: San Francisco!
WHOA!!!!!! OMG.... You know, it sounds like my friends' wedding last fall. I felt so bad because we love these people to death but it was a very similar scenario.
The ceremony and reception were in the same venue - same room, for that matter; a very pretty private club downtown. We arrived and everyone was seated and ready. But the limo carrying the groom's grandparents was stuck in traffic and was 45 minutes late....so everything pretty much began 45 minutes late. I was starving by then and had to go and dump sugar packets in my mouth from the coffee machine in the lobby to bring my sugar count up. Finally the ceremony began and afterwards we were all ushsered downstairs for cocktail and ORDERVE hour (yes, that's how I spell it, LOL). Thank goodness for the crackers and cheese and meat and veggie trays. Come time for the reception, we all grabbed our drinks and were seated. 4 long speeches later then a blessing......dinner was served about 9:45 pm. Oh yeah, that's right. Because groomsmen had to speak and then they rambled on and wouldn't stop....it was too bad because it was such a nice setup but because of unforeseen circumstances as well as long-winded bridal party members, it put everything way behind schedule. Dancing did take place though!
This wedding is what we would call a HOT MESS.
I went to a similar wedding, it was just not good all around. It was unfortunate. I didn't want to, but I couldn't help comparing it to my own wedding and thinking "Wow, ours was SO much better!"
Not all weddings can be perfect I guess.
Tales From a Kitchen Misfit
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I just thought everyone's weddings went fairly smooth - you hear about the train wrecks, of course, but apparently they are more common than I thought! Yeah, the two hours late part is still throwing me, also!