A bride has started an intense debate on Reddit after having an adults-only wedding ceremony—and asking one guest who brought her children to leave.
The Knot first reported that an anonymous bride posted a recap of her wedding-day drama on Reddit's "Am I the Asshole?" thread. In her post, the bride said that she and her husband-to-be wanted a child-free event—and had requested an adults-only wedding on their invitations—but ran into some trouble when a guest brought her two kids, a toddler and a baby.
The bride says she allowed the children and their parents to stay through the ceremony but asked her wedding planner to confront the family at the reception. "At the actual wedding ceremony, I let it slide. I was preoccupied for obvious reasons," the bride wrote. "I also thought that maybe they planned not to attend the reception or to have someone pick the kids up before it started."
That didn't happen, so the bride says she decided to intervene: "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. I explained that I had actually sent him over to discuss the children. I reiterated that the event was child-free and said that I had stated so clearly on my 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. I said that wasn’t really the point," she continued. "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.
"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."
The bride reiterated that her invitations requested that the wedding be adults only. "To be clear, all of my invitations stated that there were to be no children at this wedding," the bride said in her post. "But she and her husband showed up with their infant and toddler (who I think is like 3-4)."
"I really hate that my wedding day had to be somewhat marred by this incident. According to my mother, everyone was talking about it and I guess enjoying a little dramatic entertainment," she said.
The bride's post has since gone viral, racking up more than 1,500 comments since it was posted to Reddit three days ago.
"I’ve had wedding invites and save the dates that say 'we love kids, but this is an adults-only affair.' Easy and explicit without being rude," one commenter said. "The assholes we're [sic] the ones who brought their kids to an explicitly child-free event. And then caused a scene when they were asked to leave," another wrote.
Some, however, thought she could have handled the situation differently—and the bride updated her original post to add that "a few family members felt it was inappropriate to kick out the couple."
Her edit also addressed the comments that other Reddit users left on her post. "Thank you all so much for the feedback. What I’ve gotten from this is that most people think that the couple was rude," she wrote. "The feedback here has helped me not to feel guilty about that and just realize that not everyone has the same ideas about tact and manners."
You can read the bride's entire saga on Reddit. But it's ultimately a good reminder for anyone planning on going to a wedding: Read the invitation before bringing the whole family.
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