Wedding Rant Time, Rule #1
Dear Brides:
A couple of rules for weddings. Just keep them in mind.
1 - Your Guests Don't Owe You Jack Shit
No, really.
No, really.
A wedding is a party. You are celebrating. You send out invitations to people you care about, to people your hubby-to-be care about, to people that your parents care about, and you say, "This is going to be a very special day. We're starting our lives together. Please, please come along and share in our joy."
Note that the invitation says "honour of your presence." Not "checkbook."
Wedding receptions are elaborate because the happy couple and their parents decide that they should have a wonderful party, since this is a once-in-a-lifetime event and they want to do it up with a bang.
The fact that you paid $50/dinner, $20/dinner, $1000/dinner is utterly irrelevant. That's what you decided to pay in order to have a nice dinner for the honored guests who are doing you the favor of sharing in your joy. Isn't that nice of you?
In return, most if not all of your guests get you a gift, out of the goodness of their hearts, because they want you to have something nice from them to start your lives together. Isn't that nice of them?
The two are not connected. What you paid for their dinner is not tied to the amount they get you as a gift.
This idea of people needing to "cover their dinner" has got to go. Do people really make checklists and tick off names? "Let's see, Janice gave me a $35 gift certificate - that's OK, the dinner was $20/plate - Oh, wait! She brought her husband! Ungrateful bitch! I'm out $5!"
You aren't OUT anything. You threw a party and got gifts. End of fucking story.
If you said next year: Hey, I'm having a really nice birthday party at Chez Swanky, and I want all of you to come! But by the way, I'll be paying for your $75 dinner, so my gift better be worth at least that! - your friends would write you off as a greedy little wench.
Same goes here.
....I'm going to have to break this into chunks before I spontaneously combust. Be watching for later parts...
A couple of rules for weddings. Just keep them in mind.
1 - Your Guests Don't Owe You Jack Shit
No, really.
No, really.
A wedding is a party. You are celebrating. You send out invitations to people you care about, to people your hubby-to-be care about, to people that your parents care about, and you say, "This is going to be a very special day. We're starting our lives together. Please, please come along and share in our joy."
Note that the invitation says "honour of your presence." Not "checkbook."
Wedding receptions are elaborate because the happy couple and their parents decide that they should have a wonderful party, since this is a once-in-a-lifetime event and they want to do it up with a bang.
The fact that you paid $50/dinner, $20/dinner, $1000/dinner is utterly irrelevant. That's what you decided to pay in order to have a nice dinner for the honored guests who are doing you the favor of sharing in your joy. Isn't that nice of you?
In return, most if not all of your guests get you a gift, out of the goodness of their hearts, because they want you to have something nice from them to start your lives together. Isn't that nice of them?
The two are not connected. What you paid for their dinner is not tied to the amount they get you as a gift.
This idea of people needing to "cover their dinner" has got to go. Do people really make checklists and tick off names? "Let's see, Janice gave me a $35 gift certificate - that's OK, the dinner was $20/plate - Oh, wait! She brought her husband! Ungrateful bitch! I'm out $5!"
You aren't OUT anything. You threw a party and got gifts. End of fucking story.
If you said next year: Hey, I'm having a really nice birthday party at Chez Swanky, and I want all of you to come! But by the way, I'll be paying for your $75 dinner, so my gift better be worth at least that! - your friends would write you off as a greedy little wench.
Same goes here.
....I'm going to have to break this into chunks before I spontaneously combust. Be watching for later parts...