Bride & Groom's Strict Wedding Rules Include Enforcing When People Can Get Out Of Their Seat & Making Everyone 'Help Out' Instead Of Hiring Staff
No photos, no open bar, no getting up outside of "mingling hour" — is there anything guests ARE allowed to do?
pixelshot / Canva Pro Weddings are obviously about the bride and groom, not the guests. Still, you are throwing a party for all of your closest friends and family, too, so there's a line where your preferences can become a hindrance for your guests, right?
Well, one couple on TikTok seems to disagree. They've gone viral for their strict wedding rules that have struck many — including some of their own wedding guests — as downright ridiculous.
The bride and groom's strict wedding rules were so 'ridiculous' that some of their guests walked out.
It seems like maybe the rise of so-called "therapy speak" and all its talk of "boundary setting" has infiltrated the wedding world and taken the long-held trend of "bridezillas" and "groomzillas" to a whole new level of outright entitlement.
Like, yeah, you're entitled to have your wedding the way you want your wedding. But charging entry fees, banning certain colors, and insisting your guests only have two drinks? That's stepping firmly into "the world revolves around me" territory with both feet.
Take all that and multiply it by… well, a million, and you'll have something on the level of this couple's wedding, which has left the internet slack-jawed.
Their rules required guests to help with set-up, forbade them from leaving their seats, and prohibited photos.
And that's just scratching the surface. The TikToks bragging about the strict rules seem to have been deleted — possibly because the whole thing was meant as satire, as some commenters suspected. But even if it was a joke, the fact it felt so plausible speaks volumes.
"We had guests LEAVE OUR WEDDING when they read our 'ridiculous' rules," the couple indignantly captioned the photos they posted on TikTok. And given how each rule is more "ridiculous" than the last, it's easy to see why.
Rule number one? "Everyone helps out." This is because the bride and groom did not hire any staff, so "everyone needs to do their part." That includes the bride's grandpa with a bad back, who set up all the chairs. And her cousin, who bartended.
Rule number two was that everyone only gets two drinks in order to save money on the bar tab and to avoid any drunken family drama. Which… honestly that makes some sense. It's not what I would choose to do, but if you've got a volatile family, it makes sense.
But the other rules are downright insane. Rule number three, for instance, was "respect the seat assignment." Reasonable enough, right? But what that actually means is that no one is allowed to leave their seat at all, except during "mingling hour" from 7-8 p.m., unless they're "getting a drink, food, or going to the bathroom." Is this a wedding or a maximum-security federal prison?
It seems more like the latter because the wedding also had a 10:30 curfew, and the bride and groom forbade "naughty music." No fun will be had at this wedding, and that's final!
Many suspected the post was fake, but the fact it felt so plausible says everything about how out of control weddings have become.
Reactions to the couple's strict wedding rules were pretty much unanimous: everyone felt like they would have walked out, too.
"Your wedding, your rules. My invite, my decline," wrote one commenter on the post. Others asked mocking questions to clarify the insane rules, like "How many bathroom breaks do I get?" and "Am I allowed to text my friends across the room and wave?"
Many, of course, assumed the post had to be satire, while others pointed out that it appeared to actually be a clever rage-bait ad for the event photo app POV, which is mentioned in the bride's rules about "no cameras."
Either way, the post felt plausible for a reason — aggressive wedding rules really do seem to have gotten out of hand. No one's saying you have to relent on your desires for your wedding — even the more draconian ones, like banning kids, are reasonable if that's what the bride and groom want. But it's starting to seem like weddings are becoming less about sharing a milestone with those you love and more about indulging in a day of unfettered tyranny. No surprise, then, that more and more people seem to be RSVP'ing to send their regrets.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.