It is every bride and groom s nightmare: the wedding reception begins and you discover that uninvited guests have shown up for dinner. Believe it or not, in some families this is a very common problem. These are some tips on how to handle uninvited wedding guests.
Showing up to a wedding without an invitation is a serious social faux pas. It would be like wearing a necklace your ex boyfriend gave you for your wedding instead of your fiance s gift of pearl bridal jewelry. (Sell that old jewelry with the bad ex boyfriend karma! The pearl bridal jewelry is surely the first of many romantic gifts you will receive from your husband.) Nonetheless, wedding crashers are a real problem, and not just in the movies. It can be a difficult issue for the newlyweds to resolve on the spot at the reception, which is why it is wise to have a plan in place beforehand should uninvited guests arrive.
The most likely type of uninvited wedding guest is not so much a true wedding crasher (unless you happen to be a celebrity), but a date brought along by one of the official guests. This actually makes the issue a bit more delicate, since presumably the person to whom you did extend an invite is someone that you care about. That means that unceremoniously chucking the intruder into the street by his shirt collar is pretty much out of the question.
If you are having a buffet dinner and there is room for an extra guest, the most gracious thing to do is nothing. Do not make a fuss, do not call out the person who brought along someone extra without bothering to ask. Simply allow the uninvited guest to have dinner along with everyone else and do not give it another thought. In the case of a buffet or station reception, it really won t cost you anything more than maybe a couple of drinks.
On the other hand, if you have a full house or are having a seated dinner, feeding an interloper may not be so easy. If an extra plate and a spot at the dinner table can be found, allowing the wedding crasher to sit with the person who brought him is the easiest option. But if you do not have an extra dinner or a place to put the uninvited guest, by all means someone (not the newlyweds, as they should not have to deal with petty annoyances on their wedding day) should inform the person that they cannot accommodate an extra guest for dinner. To soften the blow, you may invite them to join everyone else for dancing after the meal.
Much more rarely, there will be true wedding crashers, people who you most definitely do not want to have at your wedding. Typical candidates are ex boyfriends or ex girlfriends, estranged relatives, and maybe a crazy former roommate. There is no need to allow these people to intrude on your wedding day. The father of the bride or the best man is perfectly in the right if he lets the wedding crasher know that his or her presence is not welcome and that they must leave. Rarely will this sort of problem arise at a wedding, but at least if it does, you will be prepared to handle it so smoothly that none of the invited guests will even know that anything is happening.
Author Resource:
Bridget Mora writes for Silverland Jewelry about weddings, etiquette, and society. Visit us at http://silverlandjewelry.com/ and receive free shipping on all jewelry orders over $99!
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")