The bride waited till the ceremony was over and thought that the parents would get their kids picked up before the reception.
Any couple who is getting married would want things to run perfectly on their wedding day. So, it can be quite a hassle if their guests refuse to comply even after being informed well in advance. Similarly, a bride, u/buildingtile, was forced to tell a couple to leave her wedding. They had brought their two kids to the wedding even though the invitation card clearly mentioned that the ceremony was going to be child-free. The woman shared the incident on Reddit and asked if she was in the wrong.
The bride shared that she was not very close to the couple but invited them because the wife was a close family friend. "To be clear, all of my invitations stated that there were to be no children at this wedding. But she and her husband showed up with their infant and toddler," the woman began. "At the actual wedding ceremony, I let it slide. I was preoccupied for obvious reasons. I also thought that maybe they planned not to attend the reception or to have someone pick the kids up before it started." She explained, "My niece, who was our flower girl and a few other kids who had to be at the wedding for one reason or another were getting picked up/dropped off after the ceremony ended."
"Anyway, the reception rolls around. The couple comes and lo and behold, they still have their children," the woman recounted. "I had many other guests and didn't really feel like dealing with it, so I asked our event planner to go over to them and discuss whether someone was picking up the child as the reception (and wedding, frankly!) were not supposed to have children." She went on, "My event planner went to talk to the couple. I could tell they were arguing with my event planner, though, so I went over to help him. I think they thought I came to rescue them because they started going on about how rude my event planner was." The bride clarified that she was the one who had sent the event planner to talk to them. She reiterated the event was supposed to be child-free, which she mentioned clearly on the invitations.
"The wife gave a sort of apology and then assured me that they were capable of minding their own children to make sure they didn't get in the way of anything," the bride shared. "That's when my now-husband comes over, and he and the other woman's husband begin going back and forth and things got a little heated." She continued, "Finally, I snapped and said that they just needed to go, which, thankfully, they did without much more noise. Still, the whole scene was incredibly embarrassing, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid." She was disappointed that her special day was overshadowed by such an incident. She wondered if she was wrong for sending out the couple this way. However, people in the comments supported her and expressed their thoughts.
u/_joesummer wrote, "You stated it on the invitation and asked them politely first. I feel awful that a day that was meant to be the best of your life was tarnished by the event." u/scnavi commented, "I have a six-year-old, and even if children were allowed I would probably still find a sitter. If I'm getting all dolled up to go to a wedding, I want to relax and have fun. I love my little dude, but mommy needs to unwind sometimes." u/vulturedoors remarked, "Yeah, for them to argue about it was even more outrageous. You don't have to explain or justify why you didn't want kids at your wedding."