Wedding day....England are playing?????

[arghhhhhhh]

Just been on fb and someone I know (though not well and I am nit invited to the wedding!) is getting married on Saturday. Obviously England are playing.

She has it a status on saying she has had multiple requests from guests wanting to know if the football will be shown.

Her status basically says she's angry at the messages she's had and under no circumstances will the football be shown. It's her wedding and the day is about that and that only. She's asked that no one checks their phones during the match and is even going to have a sign made for when people enter the venue as a reminder it's a football free zone.

Now she's had a fair few comments - a couple even say they wouldn't attend if they were invited due to her attitude.

What's everyone's opinions?

Me personally, I'd show it! I love football though, I've followed the World Cup through out and I'd be gutted if I couldn't watch it! I'd be making arrangements with the venue to make sure it's on.

The atmosphere would be amazing. I'd be jumping around with everyone else in my dress.....

Also a great way to break up the day. The day goes so fast for the bride and groom but the day guests....it can be such a long and tiring day. What a great way to break up the day!

Also, we are doing well, we haven't been in this situation where we may actually have a good chance of WINNING!!!! for years and probably never will again. The whole country is routing for them. Even people who don't like football are into it. I just don't think it's fair to expect people not to watch it, or not even check their phones!

Saying that....I do understand this lady's frustrations. She's been planning this wedding for over a year. I got married quite recently and know the stress etc of planning....but yeah, wouldn't make any difference to me. I'd be so excited for it to be shown!

Opinions? Is she being unreasonable? It's her and her partners day at the end of it.....I'd be worried my guests wouldn't show up though....

Whether she is unreasonable or not depends on whether she wants swathes of guests to pull out or disappear when the game begins. She really can't dictate to adults re use of their mobiles etc.

Years ago I attended a wedding which was taking place on the same day as an important England match. There were a large number of fans attending so a screen was set up a room at the reception. Even the priest was a fan and he started the ceremony by saying 'well let's get going, we don't want to miss the match' It worked out well, a few die hard fans watched the whole thing but most dipped in and out for a catch up and still enjoyed the wedding.

If I had my wedding this year and it clashed with an important WC match I would of asked the bar to put the TV on and honestly if it clashed with the meal I would of kept it on in the background on mute. My wedding day was centred around my guests being happy.

I can see her point though. It's her day and she should be able to celebrate it her way.

It's not daft for picking a day during the world cup if it didn't occur to you. It's absolutely idiotic if you did know that the world cup is June-July every non-leap even year, but I don't suppose the couple did.

But it's not the fact that the world cup is on, it's that England is playing - and very few would have predicted that! If it were just two random teams playing in that match then the number of people who cared enough to even check their phones would probably have been small. Presumably anyone who simply cannot miss a world cup match has already RSVPed no to this wedding, so is out of consideration.

My DM got married on WC final day in 1966. Her DB had tickets. He came to the wedding but has never forgotton it. The marriage only lasted 13 years so he might have been better off chosing the match!

I went to a wedding when England were playing Germany in a World Cup qualifier. Neither the Bride or Groom were English but they still set up a tv to show the game in an outside courtyard. England won 5-1. There was a great atmosphere and all the men who were going to slope off to the pub to watch stayed at the wedding. I’d show it if I were the bride...

On our wedding day, there was an England match. Ceremony was at 3, so by the time we got to the reception the game was in full flow. We made sure the venue would be screening the match for those who wanted to watch it. No dramas!

Why the message about a 'men's football' match? The players may be men but I would be gutted to miss Saturday's match.

I assume the poster is one of the many feminists who refer to 'men's football', 'men's cricket' etc so as not to imply that the male sport is the default and the women's sport is an inferior imitation.

Think about it - isn't it insulting that the men's world cup is called the 'world cup', while the women's version is the 'women's world cup'?

DS1 eloped, but he and DiL scheduled their big reception party around our favourite baseball team's playoff schedule and the possibility of them going to the World Series.

The bride can do as she chooses, but she needs to expect that there will be a lot of people walking around with ear-buds in their ears, people popping in and out to check the action, or who will only make a token appearance at the reception/evening do and then scuttle off to the nearest pub.

Personally, I'd probably just go with the flow and set up a screen somewhere off to the side with the sound on mute. I'd rather have my loved ones there (if a bit distracted) than not have them there because of a sports game!

I really cannot stand football. Putting a match on at my wedding would be about as much fun for me as people throwing shit instead of confetti.

I am totally with the bride.

If a friend cancels because of some men running round a field they are not a good friend.

And no it wouldn't occur to me to check if the world cup was on, Wimbledon, the Olympics etc unless I was marrying an Olympian of course.

The president of the FA missed the cup final this year to attend a wedding.

Although I did go to one wedding where the bride was English, groom Scottish and we hand n England Scotland game in the garden. Bride was in goal due to huge dress and two of us were moving the goal behind her so noone could score.

I'd make a point of deliberately asking other guests if they no the score or sit proudly on my phone checking and giving updates to whoever asked

There's no pride to be taken from a blatant display of atrocious manners!

The bride's post on fb doesn't do her any favours, but I certainly agree with the principle.

The wedding is the bit where they say words to each other and sign a book. Right?

The rest is a party around the wedding (reception)? Not a compulsory event?

Amused at the ‘There are football matches every week, somewhere in the world’ type comments. Sure, and there are weddings in pretty much every church and register office and hotel every week too. If you are of a certain age, which I am, you cannot move for weddings. They aren’t rare, you know....most of the time a sizeable chunk of guests are there on sufferance - I can’t bend my life round each and every one, and now to all the pomp and circumstance and series of expensive events they all seem to require.

I want to watch the match, I’m going to watch the match - it’s only on for 1.75 hours. As it is I’ve just rearranged my work day to accommodate it.

BarbaraofSevillle
The wedding could have been booked a year or two ago. Would it have occured to anybody to think about the World Cup or any other sporting event when setting a date? Doubt it.

Mitzimaybe
Erm, yes. From the moment we got engaged I knew the wedding could only be in the June or July of an odd-numbered year, to avoid the chance of a clash with an important game.

erm no, i wouldnt have a clue about when the world cup was on, or the matches as quite frankly i dont care about football - like a lot of people in the world

Any football supporters who wanted to watch the match at my wedding would be welcome to fuck right off, twats

Talk about your bad luck, any other WC and you’d have bet that England would have bombed in the Group or not even qualified.

Having been in this situation with the Rugby WC in 2003, she’d be better off getting a flatscreen with the sound off in the reception venue.

If guests are summarily banned from watching in their phones she’s more likely to have empty seats than repentent guests.

haha, the poor deluded fool thinks shes more important

I'm not even a classic football fan but there's no way I'm missing the next game - even if I was her mum or sister!

Anyone attending will be properly fucked off (apart from the minority who don't give a toss) . Much better to embrace it and make it part of the day instead of being a princess tippy toes miserable grumpypants

So weird, two women were having this exact conversation in front of me on the school run.

Are you from Lincolnshire, OP?

If a friend cancels because of some men running round a field they are not a good friend.

If you have 150 people at a wedding then most of those 150 are not going to be the bride's good friends. They will be a mixture of close family, extended family, partners of family, friends and partners of friends.

That's also probably not true Margaret. Big world cup games that England aren't involved in would also likely lead to lots of sneaking off. Perhaps not to the same degree as an England match (although England make nearly all major tournaments and nearly always get to the knock out stage so any date in the world cup is a realistic England clash). But if it was a really juicy non England match, there would still be people trying to slope off to watch it.

just to be clearer I wouldn't expect her to put a 6ft screen in and show the match during the vows or anything - just don't ban any mention of it. wtf.

I suppose it depends where during her day it would be & how many wanted to watch.

I'm not sure I'd actually show it, but might be prepared for some of the guests to go & watch it elsewhere.

I f it was my wedding I'd show it. If she feels that strongly about it she should have made sure there wasn't the possibility of a clash.

Other than during the actual ceremony, I would have the match on even if it was during the meal.

I'm not that fussed about big weddings though, I only cared that I got married.

Most weddings are quite dull at times anyway, would liven it up!

I can't stand football, but I remember a friends wedding in 2001 where England were playing Germany and there was a constant rotation of people nipping out to listen to the radio (reception somewhere with no TV, and of course pre smartphone) and the score would ripple across the reception. In fact tbh its what I remember most about the wedding as it was what made it different. Oh, and that I got jelly and icecream for pud which was fab

It wouldn't have occurred to me that England might be playing if we booked a wedding even 6 months in advance. The last England match I watched was the WC QF 1986 and we all know how that one turned out!

What happens to people when they start planning a wedding? Weddings are no big deal to anybody other than the bride and groom and their immediate family and yet people get the idea that they are the centre of the universe because they are getting married. The wedding is the start of a marriage, not an end in itself. This me me me me me me attitude is so unattractive.

If she was so opposed to the idea of another big event clashing with her own, she should have spent a few minutes checking what else was going to be going on in the world when they first set the date. Guess what, the World Cup would have been right there in the first page of Google results. Even if England hadn't qualified it was entirely predictable that a lot of the guests would have wanted to see a World Cup quarter-final match, regardless of who's playing.

People will be just sneakily looking at their phones. I went to a few events pre-smartphones that clashed with important games and a couple of people would have smuggled in in-ear headphones and a tiny radio.