Your wedding day is certain to be a memorable experience that you’ll remember for years to come. In addition to your venue, décor, wedding attire and itinerary, your wedding guests play a key role in making your big day extra special. Your nearest and dearest will all want to gather to celebrate your union, but what happens if guests aren’t on their best behaviour?
Unfortunately, badly behaved guests are often part and parcel of the wedding experience. While the behaviour of others is somewhat out of your control, what you do in response is the key to taming guests that do overstep the mark. Here, we offer our advice for dealing with all types of unruly and badly behaved wedding guests.
The overly merry guest
Enjoying a tipple or two is generally one thing the bride, groom, wider wedding party and guests all like to do. But when a guest has one too many and starts acting out, the consequences have the potential to ruin your big day.
Be prepared to ensure inebriated wedding guests are dealt with. Chances are you have some clue about which wedding guests may take it too far based on their drinking habits and previous special occasions.
Recruit a member of your wedding party to keep a watchful eye over said guests. They can be on call throughout your wedding day to escort the overly merry guest to the nearest cup of strong coffee and/or the taxi home.
The inappropriately dressed guest
There are tons of wedding fashion faux pas, a fact that makes dressing for a wedding particularly challenging for those on your guest list. Whether it’s a loud shirt or all-white ensemble that’s your bugbear, there’s not a lot you can do on your wedding day to challenge their attire.
On the day, simply letting it go and thinking about the true meaning of your wedding is the best thing you can do. Having a quiet word with your photographer to place badly or inappropriately dressed guests at the back of the shot to ensure their attire isn’t a lasting memory is also recommended!
The complaining guest
Older wedding guests are often seen as the complaining type, but the truth is, complainers, come in all shapes and sizes. After spending months or even years planning your special day, the last thing you want to hear is guest grievances.
As the bride or groom, you don’t have to listen to complaints that the music is too loud, the service too slow or the food not to your guest’s taste. Simply direct their complaint elsewhere and enjoy the wedding day you so successfully planned.
The abusive guest
This is by far the worst type of badly behaved wedding guest, but you or your guests don’t have to put up with abuse. Trust your gut and have an action plan ready to deal with misbehaving guests quickly. Working with your wedding venue will ensure all bases are covered and any unfortunate situations dealt with as Offbeat Bride explains:
“How do you come up with a game plan? Ask the venue what their policy is on making misbehaving guests leave, and write that down, along with rule #3: what you personally decide warrants someone getting kicked out of your wedding. Print it out and give it to family, your wedding party, hired help, and anyone else who might need to know.”
At Country House Weddings, our venue teams work with you to ensure your wedding day can go ahead as you envisaged, whatever challenges unruly wedding guests throw at you.
Our priority is to protect the experience of the bride and groom keeping them away from the incident at all cost. If the family and friends of the misbehaving guest are unable to de-escalate the problem themselves, our personal wedding manager will ask the person to leave and/or arrange transport for them. If they refuse to leave, as a last resort we will ask for assistance from the police.
We’re here to prevent and deal with any dilemma, including guest-related drama, so you can keep a clear head and truly enjoy your special day.
