Multimillion dollar black tie wedding denies guests chairs and food to be 'chic.'
Money certainly can't buy class, but can it buy a 'chic' aesthetic?
Weddings can unfortunately bring out years of unresolved family tension, and the more money that's spent on subtle details and the wedding wardrobe can guarantee even more drama. So, when a disappointed and shocked guest decided to consult the gloriously petty Reddit group, 'Wedding Shaming,' about a fancy wedding from the upper crust of elitist hell, people were eager to pile on.
Multimillion-dollar wedding and nowhere to sit: how the most expensive wedding I ever went to was the worst...
So a family member of mine got married last year. She and her now husband are both 20 years old, Southern, extremely religious, and come from families that are loaded. I'm talking multimillion-dollar status. I don't want to identify them beyond that.
They invite our entire gigantic family (we live out of state) to their Southern state for the wedding. We were all excited. Our family usually throws great parties, we like to have a good time, and I have awesome relationships with all my cousins. It was bound to be fun. About 50 of us were in tow.
One of the first things we learned through one of my relatives was that the bride's father spent $80,000 alone just on flowers. Not the floral designer or the arrangements as a whole, just on flowers alone.
My cousins and I were like... wow, okay, that's a lot. But we weren't too surprised. They are loaded, after all, and I thought it was tacky that a family member would out them for how much money they spent.
Fast forward to the ceremony. There is a total of roughly 400 guests dressed in black-tie attire. The bride is on her fourth dress of the weekend, between the welcome party, rehearsal dinner, rehearsal dinner after party dress, and now wedding dress.
Another reception dress would come later. The venue they chose was stunning, and it was unlike any other wedding I'd ever been to. The ceremony was outside and very secret-garden-esque. It was stunning.
The ceremony was predictable. At one point, the officiant prayed over the couple while the bridal party and immediate family members laid hands on them. Something about being humble and meek.
My cousins and I had to stifle our laughs as a mega-drone swooped down and began circling them like a fly in the air, capturing every angle of the 'humble' moment. The officiant prayed, but all you could hear was the severe buzz of the drone capturing the moment.
Fast forward to cocktail hour. Apparently, we had to take pics with the couple, but absolutely no one told us we had to until the wedding planner swooped into the cocktail party, angry at us for not knowing this. My cousins and I walk out of the venue and down toward where the couple and their gigantic wedding party were posing.
The bride sees up coming and yells, 'Hurry the hell up! RUN! You're taking freaking ALL DAY!!! Hurry!' Just... weird. Again, no one told us we had to do this. We all scurry down. I'm running through grass in my 4-inch heels. Jesus would love this.
Reception time. We all enter the huge, stunning hall. We notice that there aren't any seating charts. Not totally unusual, but a bit strange for a wedding of this size. About 10 minutes into trying to find seats, we realize that every seat is full.
Roughly 50 of my family members were standing in the corner, with another 50 or so guests who had nowhere to sit. The awkwardness was palpable. Roughly 100 guests with nowhere to sit for dinner.
One of my aunts, the bride's father's closest sister, flags down the wedding planner. 'Hey there, it looks like there are some seats missing. Everyone over there in the corner has nowhere to sit. I noticed there are some extra cocktail tables in the lobby. Do you mind if we scoot them in here so people have a place to eat? It won't hold everyone, but something is better than nothing,' my aunt asks.
She is sweet as pie, and my family offers to carry the tables in. We're not picky people.
'No, that's not an option. The bride and groom specifically chose this layout for the reception, and bringing in any extra tables would make the room look less chic. You can go out there, though,' replies the wedding planner.
The bride's grandmother (who was in the wedding party and walked down the aisle) did not have a seat. She's in her late 80s and frail with cancer. Not one person offered up their seat to her. Because there were so few seats, people were claiming them and refused to move in fear they'd lost their spot.
The bride, groom, their immediate families, the venue workers, and the wedding planner completely ignored the fact that 100 of their guests were without seats. My aunt tried flagging down her brother (the bride's father), and he completely ignored her. My sense is that he was maybe too ashamed or embarrassed to admit they screwed the pooch.
It's time to eat. The buffet runs out. Not enough food for all of the guests. People are flabbergasted. My family just makes a pact to hit up a fast-food restaurant on the way back to the hotel. But hey, they had a to-scale, lifesize replica cake modeled after their 150 lb dog, so we did get some cake.
The leftover 100 of us who were lucky to grab a little food or cake had to go sit and eat in the lobby, either standing at a cocktail table or sitting on the floor in our black-tie dresses and suits.
Thankfully, a bartender dragged in a bench from outside for the bride's grandmother. Because we're not shitty or snooty people, we just had to laugh at the irony of the entire wedding.
Of course, the jury of wedding shamers was eager to weigh in on this disaster. Here's what people had to say:
cheezygirl2001 said:
I feel like the more money you spend on a wedding, the more complex it gets and thus more ridiculous fails happen. The bride probably is ashamed that it didn’t work out how it did in her mind where on 3/4 people are sitting at one time so having less chairs is ok, people will rotate. As if people in 4 inch heels aren’t going to find a spot and park for the duration!
1TiredPrsn said:
They blew the seating budget on flowers. Poor grandma, though.
Use_this_1 said:
Sounds about right, I've noticed that the more extravagant the wedding the less fun it is, usually.
TidyFiance said:
A real wedding planner purposely allowed the seating chart to be 100 seats short of the RSVP list?