Turning up to church wedding just because you can. Would you?

Perhaps members of the church congregation coming to show respect to the family. Seems rude to dismiss them as rando's

No. Women in white dresses but clearly not virgins doing weddings gives me the ick

We were married in my mum's village church.
Several people who had known me as a child came to the church to see us get married. They weren't invited but we expected a few would come. They may have asked my mum if it was OK.
Think we offered them all some of the snacks we had laid on at the church
I also used to live in another village right by the church and everyone used to go out and watch the bride arrive.
Possibly more a village thing where people know everyone

An important part of a baptism is welcoming the child into the fellowship of the church, surely it would be weird if there was no one there to represent that fellowship?

Even if someone did turn up to church uninvited they wouldn’t be welcome to just turn up at the reception

Weirder to make it a private event in the first place when it's so much about welcoming them into the church community.

Yes, in those days it was a genuine celebration of the marriage and people who didn't know the couple well, but whose paths crossed would go along to see them married and wish them well.

Now it's all a out the "perfect" day and often, seems to me, to miss the point.

“…legitimate guests”

I’d say that parishioners attending a church service are legitimate. A church wedding is a public act in front of the parish community. That’s the whole point of reading the banns of marriage. Often church members pray for the couple and see them as part of the church family.

It used to happen a lot where I’m from, friends and neighbours who haven’t made the cut go to the church or wait outside the church to see the bride and wedding party. I can remember my mums work colleagues being there and thought it was rather lovely.

A lot of this goes on in villages, or at least the one I grew up in, and the one I currently live in. I think it's quite sweet. Someone from the village is getting married in the church? Expect a bunch of randos who have been around for generations to turn up and sit at the back, particularly if they also have a connection to the church in some way. It's like an unofficial stamp of approval from the village itself.

Weddings aren't part of the normal service and members of the community/congregation do turn up.

In the days when we still had balconies in the old Church of Scotland buildings, it wasn't uncommon for strangers - usually well-behaved older children - to sit up there and watch the service. There was always the beadle or another kirk elder keeping a watchful eye.

I would never have sat in the body of the kirk downstairs.

I did watch at least one wedding from upstairs when I was a bairn.

We got married in church on a Saturday afternoon and loads of my parents neighbours as well as people from the village turned up. I'm not sure I would do the same though

We had a crazy priest that organised our wedding during normal mass because ‘only one family are regulars’. A huge family that took up two pews, and then was invited, by the priest back to the pub where we had laid on a spread. There were also a bunch of old ladies too.

Oh, and originally we kind of wanted to elope as there had been lots of family drama regarding the wedding. He refused and said either we invite them or give their phone number for him to call them.

I have heard of it, eg neighbours, friends of friends going to wedding services, but not done it myself

Very common in Irish village weddings. Neighbours, work colleagues of parents who may not be invited go “to see” the wedding and the style.

We did it in our teens in the 1980s/early 90s a few times, once we crashed the wedding of one of the stewards at our local leisure centre as a surprise.

We were quiet and respectful (we knew how to behave), sat at the back (in our denims as we were going ice skating after 🤣), and she was very chuffed we all came to wish her well (about 30 of us), her guests/family were pleased she had people who cared enough to come see her. We even made it into her wedding album as a group photo.

Back in those days weddings were very different, people had different priorities to how they are now.

There were people at church at my wedding I didn't invite.

People from the community I'd grown up in, who wanted to see me married. It was nice.

I wouldn't do it if there was a rift that meant I specifically hadn't been invited, but if e.g. it was a friend of DC's I'd known as a child, but wouldn't expect to be invited to the do, and it was local, I might go along and throw some confetti. I think that was usual a generation ago?

At my niece’s christening (private event!), half the regular congregation turned out. Really weird.

No. They're boring even when you know the bride and groom

I wouldn't go to a wedding ceremony uninvited but ...

years ago some friends married in a cathedral in Norway. There were two or three weddings scheduled that day and some very sweet, old ladies came together and settled in to enjoy all of them.

Yes, there were about 70 extra people at our church wedding. Totally fine, they were all from churches we had attended.

Pretty common in my parents town, yes. The church part of the wedding is not seen as being a private closed event - it’s public and part of the life of the church.

But congregation members, neighbours etc who are just there to see the ceremony sit at the back, they don’t muscle in.