A bride has been criticized for “controlling” when guests can drink at her wedding.
In a recent post shared on the popular “Am I the Asshole?” On the Reddit forum, a woman explained why she ultimately decided not to have an open bar at her wedding.
“I come from a family with a lot of alcoholism and I just don't feel comfortable being around people who drink a lot,” she wrote. “Instead, my fiancé and I have decided to have a service similar to a drink ticket.”
She went on to detail why she was happy to have the drink tickets, which she said suggested the wedding venue. “With that service we've been able to customize how we want alcoholic beverages to be handled at our front desk,” she continued.
The bride explained that when she sent out the invitations, she included the guests' drink tickets, as she didn't want them to be “surprised” by the drinking rules when they arrived at the wedding. She then explained how many alcoholic drinks each guest could have when using the tickets, before sharing some other drinking rules she had for the wedding.
“The beverage service portion of the card essentially said that alcoholic beverages were limited to two per adult guest,” the bride wrote. “The 'tickets' are non-transferable, and like the rest of the drinks offered, [drinks] You should order it from your seat at your assigned table. Drinks could also be enjoyed at the assigned table.”
According to the bride, her family and her partner's family are not happy with the drink cards and have called her “a lot of rude people.” She stated that her partner has also scrutinized her a bit for having the alcohol policy, before noticing how her reaction has affected her.
“The most common one is 'bridezilla,' but a guy came up to me and told me I'm an idiot for trying to 'spoil the fun of a wedding reception,'” he explained. “The response has been largely negative and has come from all quarters of family and friends, and now my head is spinning as I try to decide what to do.”
The post quickly went viral on Reddit, with more than 4,600 upvotes. In the comments, several people stated that while the wedding didn't require an open bar, the bride shouldn't decide when wedding attendees drink.
“His fine plan went from moderately novel to aggressively controlling the more he explained it. Are you going to make Aunt Joan confront her security if she gets up from her chair with a glass of Chard in her hand? one wrote.
“It's totally fine not to have an open bar at a wedding. Even limiting consumption is pretty good,” added another. “But forcing people to drink it sitting at their assigned table?! That's too much control. It seems like you want your guests to go out of their way for you for no other reason than because you can because you're the bride.”
“You can't have alcohol at your wedding if you want (people will leave early, so be prepared). But you think you decide where they can have their drinks? Strange and controlling. “You can’t reasonably limit people to your table like this,” a third wrote. “Your wedding seems like an unpleasant event to attend with so many restrictions so your 'guests' are treated like school children.”
