Weddings are supposed to be celebrations of love, not opportunities to freeload off the happy couple. It goes without saying that guests are supposed to enjoy themselves during the reception. However, bringing a ton of containers to fill them with food to bring back home seems just plain disrespectful to everyone.
You’re well off. You’re not going hungry. You didn’t bring your husband to the wedding, but you instead managed to sneak in 10 Tupperware containers to get as much of that delicious food as you can. Rude? We think so.
A woman’s story about this exact situation went viral on Facebook and then ended up getting shared on Reddit. Unsurprisingly, people were shocked by this total disregard for any social boundaries, as well as by the cherry on top: the ridiculous 'gift' the guest gave the couple. Scroll down for the full story and the reactions, dear Pandas. Oh, and we’d love to hear how you would’ve reacted to such a greedy guest if it was your wedding. Let us know in the comments.
Anna and Sarah, Team Leaders at The Wedding Society, were kind enough to comment on the etiquette of taking home with you from a wedding. Here's what they told Bored Panda: "To state the obvious, the general etiquette around taking food home from a wedding is to just not. It's not a restaurant and you didn't pay for the food, so feel free to eat but not to stash. If someone doesn't understand this, the couple really should lean on the venue staff to deal with this. It shouldn't have to be handled by the couple," they said. Scroll down for the full interview.
A couple was horrified to learn that one of their guests filled container after container with food from their wedding
Image credits: Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Here's exactly how everything happened on the wedding day
Image credits: Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Image credits: numanuma_
According to Anna and Sarah from The Wedding Society, it's best to not bring any food containers to someone's wedding. It would be disrespectful if you did. Instead, wait to see if you're given something as a gift.
"Leave the Tupperware at home," the wedding expert told Bored Panda about how guests should behave. "As a general rule, if it hasn't been directly gifted to you, don't take it home with you. This includes floral centerpieces and other reception items," they stressed.
Meanwhile, the best way to know if a guest is eating far too much food than everyone else is to take a look around the room. "Try to be cognizant of the people around you. Eating your fair share of food, like any social situation, is about reading the room and being able to judge appropriate serving sizes. If you don't think you can handle this kind of responsibility, ask a fellow guest to keep you in check," they said.
Probably nobody enjoys telling a guest off at their own wedding. It’s usually best to nip any potential problems in the bud than to have to deal with some awful behavior on the actual day of the event. If you find out that a guest is likely to be very problematic or you learn something unsettling, you might have to uninvite them.
People were horrified by the guest's behavior. Here's what some of them had to say, as well as their own experiences with awful wedding guests
Anna and Sarah from The Wedding Society explained to Bored Panda during an earlier interview that the happy couple should evaluate how comfortable they are with confrontation, and then decide if they want to uninvite someone in person, by phone, or via online messaging.
“Sometimes, writing things out makes it easier to say exactly what you want in the way you plan to say it. Others feel better having a personal chat over the phone. Just do what is going to help you be as authentic, diplomatic, and kind as possible,” the wedding expert explained to Bored Panda.
“You also need to expect that there will be some upset, and you need to greet that with acceptance and compassion. If you’re making the decision to uninvite a guest, you need to be ok with handling the consequences of that,” they told us.
“There’s no real way to get around the pain of uninviting or being uninvited to a wedding. The only thing that eases the sting is making it as kind as possible and trying to see your situation from the other person’s perspective.”
They continued: “Try to frame it like you’re doing the best thing for both parties, such as saying, ‘I feel like you’d want to be aligned with people who have the same values as you, and I don’t think we’re those people.’ Just don’t be dishonest. It’s better to give no reason than lying for the sake of an excuse. Everyone deserves honesty.”
However, this only works if you know beforehand that someone who desperately wants to be at your wedding might be very problematic. If the guest is misbehaving at the actual event, it’s a whole different story. And this sort of bad behavior can happen anywhere, not just at weddings.
Very recently, Bored Panda spoke about guests who have overstayed their welcome with food expert, pie artist, and expert hostess Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin.
"There are any number of unforgivable dinner guest faux-pas, everything from a guest refusing to take off their stiletto heels on your new softwood floors, or bringing extra guests or kids to a dinner party when they were not invited (no, just no), to refusing to try anything served to them, or haranguing others about their diet choices," she shared just some of the ways that guests can make a dinner party host’s evening miserable.
"But perhaps the most egregious is the guest who, perhaps after imbibing a few adult beverages too many, refuses to take the hint and hit the road after everyone else has left.”
Jessica is a fan of the direct approach of getting guests to hit the road. "'YAWN! Well, I’m beat. Great party! Can I call you a cab?' or if that is still too subtle, you can always end with the Seinfeld classic, 'You must go now,'" she said that humor can be a powerful tool in one’s arsenal.
"If you know you have guests coming over that are prone to this sort of annoying welcome-outstaying, you may want to lay the groundwork in advance by including a start and end time for the dinner party in your invitation (with a bit of humor)."
Here’s an example of how this might work: "'Appetizers and drinks at 7pm, dinner served at 8pm, dessert at 9pm, followed by ‘you all get the heck out of my house’ at 10pm.'"
Of course, all of this might be simpler to do at a dinner party rather than at a wedding. Though both a host and the happy couple would probably react the same if one of their ‘beloved’ guests turns up with a toppling tower of Tupperware—with horror. With absolute horror.