Worst Wedding Reception Ever?

[TheShellBeach]

I am still trying to get my head round this one.

It was a friend's wedding last week and they happy couple invited twelve people to their reception.

After the ceremony (which was lovely) we went back to the couple's house.

There was no wedding cake. No drinks. We made ourselves cups of tea and coffee.

Then the groom handed out menus for the local curry house. Once we'd all picked what we wanted, he asked us to transfer the cost of our orders to his bank account, before he phoned up and placed the order.

After we'd eaten and tidied up, the newlyweds asked us to leave because they were tired.......................no speeches, no fun, no dancing, no music and NO FOOD provided.

AIBU to think this was the worst wedding reception ever?

Asking guests to pay is tight

The rest - some people would think it's not very special. Others would think it's an honour to be in their closest circle. I guess that's personal choice for the bride and groom. Some people don't like to be centre of attention

It's incredible that they actually asked everyone to pay for their own food. That's the height of bad manners. If they couldn't afford to provide food they shouldn't have had people over.

Only on mums et would anyone say this sounds fine etc etc
It's a massive pile of shit. Who entertains guests without even providing food and drinks. Madness, very stingy and weird.

Sorry my post was meant to quote this ^

How are they friends if you’ve only met them once before?

I thought from your OP your issues were no music or dancing or fun as well. The not paying for food is tight but the rest I think is fine. I hate the awkward increasingly drunk dancing at weddings though.

That is ridiculous. If they weren't going to host then they do the wedding and end it there.

The absolute shame I would feel if I had done this. We should bring back public shaming to stop shit like this.

It is weird and to me only shows lack of care for their guests.
And being poor is not an excuse! You can have very little money and still organise something meaningful.

Why did they even bothered?😑
Anyway...now you have a story to tell

That’s awful. We had a similar amount at our registry office do and took them all out for a nice brunch.

low key shouldn’t equal tight

The worst wedding reception I have been to also had no food.

Wedding at 11am, 250 miles away, so we travelled the night before. Then the b&g and immediate family went for lunch and a nap. No other guests invited.

Evening reception was at 7pm. No drinks provided, just a very pricey bar. No bar food, pricey or otherwise.. By 9pm, everyone was very drunk, very hungry and very skint and it was apparent that their would be no food.

The after party when we all went to the nearby Chinese restaurant was fantastic though!

Maybe it’s a scam and they do this every week with different groups just to get gifts.
was only 12 people at it, who were the others?

TBH it sounds like the kind of wedding reception that people on MN have and declare that ‘everyone says it was the best wedding they’d ever been to’ 🤣 the bride also buys a nightie for 50p from the Oxfam shop for her dress and ‘everyone told me I looked stunning’

Im very-unMumsnetty in that I absolutely LOVE flash wedding with free bars, live bands and expensive food

.......and a free curry, because we all felt we should pay towards theirs, too!

v Odd - not a Reception though was it?!

Yes, very Strange not to say this is what we plan to do. I’d have no hesitation about joining in if I’d been told when invited and then my gift would have been priced accordingly along with my choice of outfit. (Not saying it would have been a cheap gift but maybe a takeaway gift voucher as it sounds like they’d use it quicker than say a household item.)

No, I have no issues with no dancing. I said that because there was nothing that made it a wedding reception whatsoever.

I have questions

How much did you spend on a present?

Where did the invitation say the reception would be?

Was there an urgency for them to get hitched? A we did g 3 days before Xmas in your living room is a bit of a red flag

They are distant relatives of DH's. We met them ages ago at another wedding.

I said earlier in the thread that I think they'd invited other people who had declined, and DH and I were near the bottom of the list.

I think it's fine if that's what you want as a couple, but you should probably set expectations for doing that, as in 'We don't want a big deal, we're just going to ours and we'll do a takeaway dinner that we're asking people to pay for as we're trying to keep costs down so we hope that's OK' or something.

We gave them a gift voucher which is what they asked for. £50.

The invitation said that there would be a "reception at our house" but failed to mention that there would be no drinks, no food.

I have no idea if there was urgency to get married. I barely know them.

Yes, that would have been completely acceptable, but they did not do this.

Why even have a "reception" if you can't offer some type of food? Very odd! If money is an issue, you can always provide some snacks or finger food you've prepared in advance.

It's certainly different.

Worst one I went to was a cousin. Her newlywed DH was caught shagging her bridesmaid. Massive punch up. Broken chairs. Lots of tears (his, but I think that's because she had an excellent aim at his bollocks).

She went on the honeymoon with her Mum.

Yeah that sounds shit. If they actually said there was a reception at their house, the care minimum they should've provided was food and drink since they were saving on venue costs (and pretty much everything else!). They sound like cheep skates to say the least. It's fine to have a tiny do and have it all on a budget but this was ridiculous.

Sounds absolutely shite.

I really can't believe people think this is normal. You don't need music, dancing and booze but at least some drinks and food for people. They sure made out with asking for gift vouchers and buying their meal. Cheap is the word I would use.