Know you wedding etiquettes

While the day is specifically for the bride and groom, the guests make it a point to brand themselves in bad taste. By following these simple etiquettes you might just become the perfect guest and make the wedding enjoyable and slightly stress free on some accounts for the host.

Those giveaways look really nice

Those wedding favours are never too many. They are made in specific numbers and a lot of effort goes in them. Everyone gets one wedding favour. Don’t be one of those people who attack the person handing them out. If your children are not attending the wedding, please don’t ask on their behalf. Of course the wedding party will never say no, but they will get flustered. And anyway, it makes you seem greedy and like you’ve never received them before. Stop!

I didn’t get that selfie

Weddings can turn into emotional affairs and I don’t mean for the bride’s family. Sometimes, it’s completely possible that the hosts forget to invite you for a picture with the bride and groom. Please don’t make it a matter of pride and claim that your ego has been hurt. A wedding is a chaotic place and the hosts are always running around trying to get everything to perfection.

Contain your ogling

We know its great fun to comment on the people at a wedding, especially if you’re a guest but don’t do that to the bride if you’re going to stand within hearing distance. It’s disheartening for the bride to hear about her make-up being bad or her clothes being ‘okay’. Control the urge and don’t be one of those obnoxious people who don’t care about the other’s feelings. There is always this group standing near the stage, measuring the bride from her shoes to her hair, and they aren’t exactly subtle about it. She isn’t some animal in a cage!

Mr. and Mrs. doesn’t include the khandaan

Your card says ‘Mr. and Mrs.’ which means that they specifically said that no one else is invited. Common knowledge dictates that you don’t bring the entire khandaan. Your chacha, chachi, khala, khaloo are not invited. You may have received an invitation but it’s not open to the entire family.

Food stampede

Guys, control yourself. You know for a fact that you tend to waste so much food at these weddings, so don’t pile on the grub like you’ve been starving for centuries. Don’t attack the food table as soon as they unveil the food tray and don’t attack the people trying to get to the food. A wedding is hardly a place for punches and kicks to be flying around. And it doesn’t hurt to stand in a line. You get to the food faster and it saves from having mishaps involving food on clothes. Can you imagine having korma on your kamdani shirt? Ouch!

Being very late is not fashionable

As a city we’re trying to change our patterns. Lahore has already jumped on the bandwagon of early wedding timings and it’s time that we did too. You should also remember that wedding halls are now starting to close at midnight, so it’s imperative that you don’t be the one walking in at that moment expecting them to be waiting for you. One of the reasons why we can’t finish weddings at a reasonable time is because of guests who attend at their own time.

Don’t be a rishta auntie

You know how the men of your family go to purchase a sacrificial animal at the Bakra Mandi, well these aunties are no different at weddings. It’ll be like they’ve come to purchase you for slaughter by marrying their son. They’ll ask you how many teeth you have, ahem I mean what you’ve studied and what you’re doing with your life. Mind you they only go for outer beauty, and then complain about how they have such an awful bahu. Their eyes are forever scouring for the perfect candidate and they don’t hesitate approaching unsuspecting girls.

RSVP

This is something that we haven’t inculcated into our culture. While every wedding invitation will have the RSVP section, no one actually informs the sender about their attendance. Think about how much easy the life of the sender would be if they know how many people will be attending the event. Sure there is an estimate but it’s hardly ever accurate. Our weddings are large events and financing them becomes very taxing on the wedding party. It’ll be considered a very polite gesture if you took out the time to simply inform.

Those poor babies

Not all our weddings take place in an air conditioned environment and if the adults suffer from the heat coupled with itchy clothes then just imagine the poor child. And if it’s an infant, then that is complete torture. Restrain from making a baby’s life miserable by trying to leave them home with a relative or with a reliable babysitter whenever possible.