Etiquette Helps to Produce Successful Weddings
If you have attended or planned a wedding, you know that following etiquette is a big part of the process. Gradually, rules are being dropped but some etiquette still survives tenaciously.
Wedding planning is still governed by strict etiquette. Financial responsibility for the wedding still rests with the bride's family; the bride's mother still plays a key role in assisting her daughter with planning the event. The rehearsal dinner responsibility falls to the groom's parents.
A key tradition in wedding planning has been, unfortunately, under attack. Guests should not be expected to buy gifts, although almost everyone will. So invitations should not, though some do, list where the bride and groom are registered for gifts. Putting such information in writing seems crass. Guests who want to know about registry details are able to contact a member of the wedding family.
Invitations should and do spell out who is welcome at the wedding, which means guests must follow certain etiquette. No one without an invitation should attend, so if children aren't specifically invited they can't go unless the wedding families give verbal consent to an inquiry. Those who are single may not bring a guest unless invited to do so.
A lot of etiquette still applies to the bridal shower. When planning a shower, the hostess should only invite guests that have also been invited to the wedding. It is considered insulting to imply that someone is good enough to be invited to a shower and bring a gift, but isn't important enough to be invited to the wedding. Any females on the wedding guest list should also be invited to the shower.
The bridal shower should not be planned by the mother of the bride, because this could be viewed as a means to accumulate gifts for the daughter. Instead, the maid of honor and bridesmaids are typically the shower planners.
The hostess is responsible for providing refreshments, so guests are never asked to bring anything. When multiple showers are being scheduled to give everyone a chance to attend, no one should be invited more than once.
It's very important to ensure that wedding guests will enjoy the celebration and feel well looked after. Inviting a huge list of people and then cutting corners with a venue that's too small and a reception that's inadequate is unfair to guests. Weddings planned on a tight budget need to include only a guest list that can be well accommodated.
Destination weddings have become increasingly popular, and much of the traditional etiquette has been abandoned along the way. But two important concepts have emerged out of this change: those planning the wedding need to consider the financial abilities of their guests to attend, and gifts should always be mailed to the bride and groom rather than brought to the wedding.
Wedding guidelines are primarily in place to ensure an enjoyable celebration and that respect is shown for everyone. As long as those goals are kept in mind, any bending of the rules won't have significant effect.
Amber Slaco is a writer for the http://ftdfweddings.co
information resource, FTDF Weddings. Get the Weddings ezine at http://www.ftdfweddings.com
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