Do you really want to be at the reception on time?

Recently, while having a lovely afternoon taking photos in VanDusen Botanical Gardens, we were witness to quite the wedding picture story.

The first thing we saw near the garden entrance were a couple of women in the same solid purple dresses, and then another purple dress and then finally, the white dress. Ahh, a wedding. The women in the purple dresses looked red and splotchy, the colour did nothing for any of them - but of course the bride's maid dresses are supposed to guarantee that the bride is the most beautiful woman in the wedding party, so that wasn't unexpected. After them a woman in a very nice dress in a different and lovely shade of purple - the mother of the bride - joined in the quest for the perfect photo site. Yes, there were men being dragged along side each of these women, being very attentive and looking like they'd love a stiff drink. The photographer was leading everyone into the garden.

My husband and I were in the garden for about 4 hours in total, and I saw various combinations of the wedding party people wandering around various parts of the garden quite frequently.  

About an hour into it there was an unshod woman in a purple dress limping along well behind the group, carrying her shoes and complaining to her male companion about how far she had to walk. (Wearing new shoes for hours on end is not a good idea - she should have broken them in before the wedding. Sorry, I may be an older and wiser woman now, but even when I was getting married 18 years ago, I still broke in my new shoes before the wedding, as I did when I was a bride's maid too. Some women never learn, some of us do.)

About an hour after that, the full blown "We're supposed to be at the reception in 15 minutes you know" complaint from another unshod woman to another man who was trying to be attentive while carrying a small wiggling child. It looks like the bride and groom had given them the slip, they looked lost.

About half an hour later I saw the bride and groom and one bridesmaid dutifully following the photographer. The party was obviously dwindling.

Another half hour later, the bride and groom and photographer were heading to the exit alone.

We can only assume the whole wedding party made it out of the garden. 

So did the woman complaining about being late for the reception miss the point? She's in the wedding party, the reception probably won't start without them... or if it does, wouldn't that be better anyway? The end of the evening when everyone has had way too much alcohol is typically the fun part, so why not start it off early? Have the guests happy before the food and the speeches, it will get things going to a happy place early! And maybe the grumpy wedding party will have a chance to relax because they're too tired to complain!

Nope, you guessed it, I'm not a romantic at heart.