Thursday, January 26, 2012

Stag Guests may get short end of Wedding Invite

One of more stressful points of wedding planning is the wedding invitation.  Unlike the STD, these have to be a bit more formal.  To be sure, your marriage is not going to last one minute longer if your invitations are addressed as:

Mr. and Mrs. Charles and Lorne Johnson
1234 Jackson Street
Nowhere, IL 60119

or

Mr. & Mrs. Charles Johnson
1234 Jackson St
Nowhere, IL 60119

The biggest risk is that by leaving out Lorne's name, your wedding gift might be less impressive.  Or late.  Or lost in the mail.

You also have to figure out who you're letting bring a date and who has to come stag. The general rule of thumb is every Stag Guest should be able to bring a date.  However, since someone is paying for that seat, some caveats have to be implied or enforced. 

For instance, if your friend Jennifer just started dating a guy two weeks before your wedding, allowing her to bring him means you may not be able to invite someone from the office who just started a few weeks ago but you click with.  Not to mention Jennifer's date is not only someone you don't know, but very likely you'll never see again if she is a serial dater. 

On the other hand, if your friend Patrick is perpetually single and has no chance of even dating someone around the time of your wedding, does it make any sense to waste spend a +One on his invitation when you could theoretically invite the person from the office, assuming she is also terminally single?

In a perfect world, your single friends would get together and, after receiving the STD, inform you that they will come alone or as each other's "dates". It's not a perfect world. Your single friends will hold out hope that they find someone to bring to your wedding before the RSVP is due. 

One option is to figure out how many people each Stag Guest will know at your wedding.  Some out of town guests or that friend from work may not know anyone at your wedding so letting them bring a date is not only kind but downright required. 

On the other hand, someone who knows a lot of people at your wedding is a de facto candidate for being required to come solo.  Chances are they friendly and outgoing and might even be the life of the party.  Besides, there cannot be any wedding hookups if everyone is already spoken for.

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