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....

The ceremony is the ceremony, but the rest of the day is about having fun and making sure your guests have a lovely day. So if for some that is the football, then why not have it in a room for those who are interested and then people can chat or watch as they please. Then have a jolly nice dance at the disco afterwards.

I'd embrace it. It is always best to make events about the guests enjoyment rather than the hosts

That is my opinion also. Of course I wouldn't have it on if it clashed with a meal, and I wouldn't subject everyone to watching it, but I'd allow a screen to show it somewhere at my reception venue and not be bothered about those that go to watch. Chances are you'll have a lovely time milling about with the guests that aren't interested in football during those few hours.

I would screen it if timings allowed otherwise everyone will disappear outside huddled round phones / ipads.

It's my wedding anniversary on Sat which isn't affected as we are going out at night but if it was my wedding day id just think fuck it and let everyone watch it tbh

It also depends on how many of your guests are bothered about men's football. Some people have whole families where no one is really bothered about sport because they all have other interests. (I grew up in a family where even my dad was only mildly interested in men's football and I am still not sure what our 'local' team was.) If only about 20% of the invited guests have more than a passing interest in it, then having it on the telly and expecting everyone to pay attention to it is poor hosting as well as poor guest behaviour.

I appreciate this bride is going to have to make some sort of accommodation to the people so tediously obsessed with men's football, but she's not wrong for being pissed off that her wedding day - which will have involved spending a lot of money and going to a lot of effort to arrange - is going to be disrupted because some of her guests want to watch television during it.

Oh yes, if she does show it, she better put it on mute. Surely nobody wants the dulcet tones of those idiots Hoddle and Tyldsley disrupting their big day 🙄

Loved this picture the other day of Bolshoi Ballet dancers keeping up with the Russia game backstage during a performance.

At the end of the day my opinion is this - though I do love footy but even if I didn't:

Football is a massive deal to a lot of people. If the bride or groom dislikes it then that's fine. But you have to respect the feelings of some guests. It's going to be a massive deal for them to miss it - it would be to me. And knowing I wasn't even allowed to check my phone would really annoy me. It's such a massive event for England.

If you don't like it then fair enough but we all think differently. To some missing it is will be a huge deal and to not even be able to know what the score is....not really fair.

I think she needs to open her mind to this slightly and think of her guests....

If it were me there is no way on earth i would show or have anything to go with football on my wedding day. But I hate football in general.

It's ONE DAY! If the football is so important to the guests they can record it and watch it later. I would be really upset and offended if I spent ages planning and a lot of money to put on a party/food for x amount of people and then they cared more about the football.

It's a lose-lose situation. If they win then everyone is celebrating the match rather than the wedding, if they lose everyone is miserable. Probably people will get a lot more drunk and stupid either way too.

I feel sorry for the bride & groom, really bad luck for them. I'm assuming neither are football fans or they would habe considered it when booking.

It would not have entered my head (or my husbands) that there could be a football game on.

If people are football fans & want to watch it then maybe they shouldn't have accepted the invitation in the first place (as obviously they'd know it would clash!)

I would be gutted if people wanted to sit watching a screen during my wedding reception & we didn't have some flashy do, just friends & family enjoying each others company & nice food. Hollering football fans would ruin the atmosphere!

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that. Bill Shankly

If you are of a certain age, which I am, you cannot move for weddings

The last time I went to a wedding was 2004, before that, my own! My (and DH's) relatives are massively inconsiderate and don't get married! So for some people, weddings are a big deal, even if they are such a crushing bore for those who have so many friends and so many weddings to go to. If that's the way people feel, then maybe they would be better off not going and watching the match in a pub.

And just how many other events would people feel entitled to disrupt because of sport (particularly men's sports) being on television. A funeral? An awards ceremony? Your kids' school play? A major birthday party (for someone who is not interested in sport)?

Men's football is simply irrelevant to a great many people. They are not unreasonable for not considering it when making party arrangements if it doesn't feature in their lives, or the lives of their close family and friends. They are not unreasonable for being put out that some of their friends or acquaintances are inclined to prioritize watching television to spending time with them.

Also, the poor bride is going to have to contend with the people who care about men's football going on about it all day, whatever the result. They will either be moping and whining afterwards or drunkenly hugging everyone and insisting on further discussion of who kicked which ball where. So it's going to be a total PITA for the guests with zero interest.

Weddings are tediously dull at the best of times.

When I got married first and foremost I wanted my guests to remember having a lovely, relaxed day. I can’t imagine being or being friends with the sort of bride who makes it All. About. Her.

Perfectly reasonable to not show the match. Stating people can’t check their phones? Ridiculous.

We're getting married at the end of this month expressedly because the weekend fulfilled the criteria of being in the school holidays, on a Saturday, when absolutely no sport was taking place (DP's family are huge fans of a Championship side and their season starts the following weekend). We booked in Feb 17 so there's really no excuse for not doing a quick google! There's websites that literally spell out when all big dates are for you.

I've got limited sympathy TBH as it's the sort of thing you look up if you know there's an iota of interest among your invitees. I'd be very disappointed by the lack of screening it, and the instruction to avoid looking at your phones would make me laugh, call her a bridezilla and defy the edict I'd also be tempted not to go, not because of the football but because she was clearly certifiable..

I once attended a wedding on the day of the champions league final. Man United and someone, can't remember who they were playing, but I do remember they lost lol. Groom was a big football fan and a screen was put up. I don't think the Bride was too happy but she sucked it up because she knew a lot of her guests wanted to watch and would have been sneaking off to do so otherwise.

It added to the atmosphere, and then much ribbing when United lost lol.

We have an event to attend at the same time as the football. The hosts have been on the phones all day today and have got their event moved/changed slightly because of the football. She’s on to a looser with her football banned even just checking scores on phones

Jurassic, we avoided lots of weekends based on things others would be interested in. Tbh, half my lot would be as pissed off at missing Pride weekend in London if we'd had it this weekend too. Just because it's not my thing doesn't mean I can't consider big events for others.

I don't know why people are saying "men's football" as if marriage isn't one enormous patriarchal institution anyway

This will only ruin bride's enjoyment of the day if she lets it.

The odds weren’t really that long on England playing on Saturday.

Up against Panama and Tunisia they had a 95% chance of getting out of the group, and given Belgium’s quality, a 75% chance of being in second place. Then a 50:50 chance of getting through the Group of 16 and into the quarters. I make that at least a 1:3 chance they’d be playing on Saturday from the day the draw was announced. If it was my wedding I wouldn’t risk those odds (unless I was totally up for downing a few pints and yelling at a big screen myself of course).

I wonder if she's the type of bridezilla that will ban phones and then moan that no one took pictures of her? She sounds like the type.

I've been to a wedding where they showed football in a separate area and the viewers were exceptionally loud with their songs, banter, cheers, etc.

I see nothing wrong with them enjoying themselves but the problem was that they didn't seem to care whether they were disrupting the day for the bridal party and other guests.

So if it was down to me I'd likely so no - they can always watch the game when they get home!

I think it's really rude to expect to watch a football match at a wedding, it's only a game! But I equally wouldn't expect people not to check their phones for scores or celebrate the result (if they win). Poor bride, she's not got a chance of the day not being about football- and if she enforces her strict no football rule she'll probably find some guests go home!

As for the comments about checking for fixture dates when booking a wedding- as if! Football doesn't even feature in my world, it wouldn't cross my mind. More of a case that a football fan shouldn't accept an invitation to a wedding if watching the game is more important to them.

I Googled this in about 10 seconds, as I did back in Feb 2017:

www.weddingwire.co.uk/wedding-tips/the-worst-dates-to-have-your-wedding--c1413