Sunday, June 17, 2012

Serious Wedding Etiquette. It's time to get down to business.

Alright, first off, yes, it has been a long time since I was on last. I've been pretty busy, plus, I'm bad about writing if I don't have anything I truly want to discuss at that moment.

But now I do.

This summer, I am interning for a gal in town who is a wedding designer/stylist. It's an awesome opportunity for me to get into the business, learn a ton, and gain a lot of experience! So here are a few things I would like to remind the world about, because honestly, people are seriously disappointing me in the world of true and classy etiquette!

4 Things To Remember, & Never Forget:

#1. When sending out invites for your wedding, what are you doing? You are asking your friends and family to come witness one of the biggest days in your life. You are asking them to take time out of their, for example, June Sat. afternoon, to come be a part of the celebration.

What are you NOT supposed to be asking them? If they will choose to buy you a gift from Macy's or Bed Bath & Beyond!
I think that is so incredibly tasteless.

If whoever is invited to your wedding (or even if they can't make it,) want to buy you a gift to show you their love and excitement, that is their choice! And they will call or ask to find out where you are registered.

#2. Not only do I believe in not putting those little cards in the envelope, or adding it to your invite, but I also hate when that is the first thing you see when you pull out the invitation.

If you MUST put the details of your obnoxious request for gifts out of ignorance that that is why you invite people to your special occasion, then PLEASE for the love of all things classy, put it in the back! So at least your invited guest will first see what it is your requesting before being told where to shop.

#3. You are sent an invitation in the mail to a wedding, or some type of event. It might be for you best friend, your cousin, your father's business partner, or your best friend's husband's college roommate. But no matter who it is, when it is, where it is, or what it's for, you have one thing you need and are expected to do. R.S.V.P. It's a french term that means "repondez,sil cous plaite" which in American stands for please reserve your spot. In other words, we need to know if you are coming or not. It's so simple, and yet so many people do not give their R.S.V.P. because apparently they forget this event isn't about them but about someone else's hard work towards it and to be just selfless enough to honor that simple need for a response.

Now I know some weddings, say its a large wedding in a hometown church, they have all the room in the world for anyone to come, they're only doing cake and punch and so it doesn't really matter, right? Wrong! It's not about that. It's about that fact someone asked if you're coming or not. So are you going to just ignore them?
Gosh I hope not..

Because you don't have to know why you need to respond. Maybe the couple have ordered engraved wine glasses for everyone, maybe even with everyone's names on them!
Or maybe it's a sit down dinner, like a wedding I worked at last night. The couple had a sit down dinner banquet style, (meaning two long rows of tables running down each side of the asil the bride walked down.) it was an absolute beautiful set up, until 20 or so extra people just showed up and had no where to sit. See the problem here?

#4. So you have been invited to a wedding that will occur in the evening, and you've been given information from the invitation that you will be served food. Normally you can take some guesses from the info given, style, time, location, and knowledge of the bride and/or groom to know whether you will be served heavy appitizers, a full dinner, buffet style or sit down dinner. (this goes for any time of the day, though.) But no matter what, they have asked you to be there when the ceremony starts. So if the invite says 6:00pm, why on earth would you think thats what time you need to arrive? No. That is when the music starts, and the wedding party will make the first entrance. NOT when you should be arriving and trying to find a seat. People are very bad about this. And trust me, I am not saying I'm always on time. No, I can be bad about this as well, so it's something we all need to work on. ;)

So there you go. The four things that bug me the most. I might come up with some more, but for now, I'll break.. ;)

Peace out y'all.
t.