Is ignoring guests part of the new wedding etiquette?
Q:
My husband and I recently attended a family wedding at which the bride and groom did not make any organized attempt to greet their guests, i.e., no receiving line, no ushering the guests out of their seats as the couple left the ceremony, etc. When it became clear that the couple did not plan to go from table to table to greet their guests during the dinner reception, my husband and I left our table to seek out the bride — who by this time was taking selfies with her friends — and congratulate her.
At that point, the groom was in another part of the wedding venue, presumably hanging out with his buddies, so we were never even introduced to him. Is this the new normal among millennials? Is it now up to us, as guests, to seek out/interrupt the bridal couple to offer our congratulations?
Many of our family members had come from out of state to attend this event, and none of us had yet met the groom.
Incidentally, the couple are in their late 30s and were not raised by wolves, so it’s hard to excuse them on the basis of youth or inexperience in social settings.
Q:
Last year my husband and I attended four weddings. I know it may take some time, but what happened to a “receiving line” or even greeting your guests by their tables? Only one couple greeted us at one of the past weddings and did it again at our table for a photo op. The other three weddings: nada. What is this about?
A:
As you can attest from personal experience, wedding receiving lines are going out of style. They’re just not considered a must by today’s bridal couples. I get that.
The bride and groom want to have fun, get the party started and not spend tedious hours in a line when the festivities are going on around them. And let’s face it, standing in line waiting to say hi to the bride and groom is not much fun for guests either.
That said, the bride and groom should greet every guest — if only for a few seconds.
This can be handled pretty simply by stopping by every table to say a few (brief !) words of thanks for coming.
That way, the guests are seated and enjoying food, drink and conversation and not just yearning to get the receiving line over with and head for the bar.