7 Reasons It Rules To Be A Wedding Guest
It’s that time again. That ringing in your ears isn’t inner ear damage – it’s church bells. Welcome to wedding season, suckas!!!
Wedding season is the time of year when old friends and family members get to reunite – preferably on the dance floor. I guess it’s also a time when people marry each other. But mostly, it’s a time when people of all ages stand in a circle and get “a little bit softer now” to “Shout.”
I know brides and grooms call it the “best day” of their life, but planning a wedding seems like a nightmare. The truth is, brides and grooms are just trying to trick us into thinking it’s fun so that they can attend our weddings as guests. And that’s totally fair – I get it! Being a wedding guest is the best and I owe my married friends for that (beyond a check or registry gift)! As you progress through your 20s, you may find that weddings tend to dominate your summer weekends. But before you balk at the idea of losing some vacation days to wedding travel, consider what you’d be missing out on should you regretfully decline these invites.
1. Weddings are a rare opportunity to get wild to “We Are Family.” Wedding reception music is amazing. For the most part, these are songs you would skip over on the radio. Yet when you hear them on the dance floor at your cousin’s wedding, it’s as exciting as if The Spice Girls, Nirvana and Dolly Parton united for one night only. Before you know it, your grandma is in a dance off with some 22-year-old frat boy and all feels right in the world.
2. You get to talk to humans of all ages. Anybody can talk to peers. That’s a cakewalk. But knowing how to respond to a random 5 year old who wants to do the chicken dance with you? Being able to hold your own with a sassy aunt? These are skills everyone needs but not everyone has the means to acquire — until wedding season, where friends and families collide. These conversations help you to realize that the stresses of your daily grind are really not such a big deal, after all. Life is long and the world is big! So chill out and get in the photo booth.
3. You may get to witness a viral video being made! The sky is blue, grass is green, vampires are gorgeous and most viral videos are made at weddings. It is the way of the world! I mean… you guys, I would lose it if I got to see this at a wedding reception:
4. It’s an excuse to dress up. Does Zooey Deschanel make you wonder if you could pull off more eyeliner? Does Angelina Jolie make you wanna show some leg? Do you adore Daniel Craig’s ability to rock a pocket square? These things may be a little showy for the office or a bit formal for Buffalo Wild Wings — but for a wedding, they are just right. Weddings are everyone’s chance to walk into a room and say, “oh, what? This old thing? You flatter me!”
5. Dad humor is alive and well in wedding speeches. Like an archeologist discovering a perfectly preserved dinosaur fossil, a wedding speech is one of the finest ways to enjoy up to five minutes of uninterrupted cheesy jokes, perfectly preserved in their natural habitat. Cliché wedding speeches are a beautiful tradition, sure to inspire a familiar, comfortable laugh – like watching an episode of Friends you’ve seen a dozen times. My personal favorite joke? “If I’m the best man, why aren’t I the one getting married??”
6. It’s a reminder that love exists in the world. Whether you’re touched by the couple’s vows, their grandparents dancing together or just some toddler who loves to give her mom kisses; weddings are a good place to shed some of the bitter weight life tends to lay on our shoulders. There are all kinds of love in the world and many of those loving relationships can be found at a wedding — simply because it’s a happy occasion attended by a diverse group of people. Also, weddings are an excellent place to renew your vows with cake: everyone’s first true love.
7. That moment when the DJ gets a little too comfortable and plays, “Hot in Herre” by Nelly while you are mid-dance with your friend’s mom. It happens. Ah, the magic of wedding season!
