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

[EWAB]

Everybody knows that if you are in England (rest of UK?) that anybody can turn up at a church and can’t be turned away, from a wedding or baptism for example.

We know that this is a law from the Middle Ages.

But would you?

On any thread on here re: not being invited to wedding or particularly if children aren’t invited someone always suggests to just turn up at the church.

Would someone really do this?

Sure!! I love gate crashing and other antisocial behaviours! Do it all the time just for fun because my life is not fulfilling enough.

??????

I have only been into a Church wedding service a couple of times when I have been invited to the evening do, but not invited to the reception immediately after the service.

Would not attend wedding, christening/baptism service if I did not know the person, or invited to any of the celebrations afterwards.

No. It’s weird

Same here! I especially love the bewildered looks on the congragations face as they try to figure out who I am.

This is common at my church. Neighbours
/members of the congregation often sit at the back of weddings and baptisms are held during the normal service.

Surely nobody with half an ounce of pride would turn up to anything the hosts haven't invited them to?

In my experience many people just turn up to weddings in Catholic churches in Ireland, neighbours or friends who are not invited but want to wish the couple well. They usually sit near the back and are not wearing wedding guest outfits.
Also regular parishioners who just want to attend a mass, although the numbers are diminishing rapidly. Certainly my grandparents would have done that.

I'm in Scotland and can remember in the 70s seeing old ladies sneaking into the church past the photographer who was trying to takes photos of the legitimate guests.

I think it’s reasonably common for the usual congregation to turn up to weddings at their local church, especially when they know the family. Obviously only those who are invited them go on to the reception.

Given that most baptisms take place in normal Sunday services (at least in the Church of England), most of those attending will be normal congregation rather than especially invited guests.

This is not what the OP is talking about if it's part of the normal service.

Remember at my mums village church funeral there were a couple of rando's at the back. Always wondered who they were so perhaps they were professional funeral attendees. They didn't come to the wake.

Years ago it was normal!
Parents used to announce weddings in the local paper and add "everyone welcome at the church". My Nan regularly went to church ceremonies of any local marriages.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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