Many weddings in Hue City are often delayed by about 30 minutes to an hour because they have to wait for everyone to arrive - Photo: MINH LINH
The reason is that weddings in the city often start later than the time printed on the invitation, causing guests to wait for a long time.
Many awkward and embarrassing situations have occurred at such weddings, leaving both hosts and guests utterly mortified.
Arriving late to the wedding but still having to… wait.
"For my wedding, please arrive 30 minutes early to take photos and have them projected onto the large LED screen in the center of the reception. During the reception, the families won't be going around to each table to take pictures, so please try to arrive early," my friend Ngoc Bao (from Huong Thuy town, Thua Thien Hue province) instructed me while handing out the wedding invitation.
According to Bao, wedding receptions in Hue are usually started 30 minutes to an hour later than the time printed on the invitation, especially for lunchtime wedding receptions.
There are many explanations for using this "flexible" time, but it's mainly because the host wants to wait for the full attendance of friends and family at the most important ceremony of their life.
In the city, wedding invitations often fall during rush hour, so most workers have to rush to attend the party.
Traffic jams, picking up children, cooking for the family, or finishing up work… these are some of the reasons many people in the city give to explain arriving late to a wedding.
When it was time for the party to begin, seeing that the area under the table was still empty, it was clear that the host wasn't ready to start their important ceremony at all.
On Bảo's wedding day, I also made sure to finish my work early so I could arrive. The wedding reception was held at a restaurant located right in the heart of the bustling Western Quarter of Hue City.
Although I couldn't arrive as early as my friend had asked, I still believed I was on time as indicated on the wedding invitation. However, my friend's wedding ceremony couldn't begin because, despite arriving on time, very few guests showed up.
Nearly an hour later, the first dishes were served and the wedding reception began. After almost an hour of the reception, Bảo and my group of friends finally started arriving at the restaurant, even though many guests had already started to leave.
Sitting at a table marked "reserve," my friends and I called the restaurant waiter over and requested our food. However, because we didn't have enough people (10 people per table), the waiter refused to serve us. So, even though we arrived late, my friends and I had to wait for more people to arrive to fill the table.
At that moment, groom Ngoc Bao, despite being busy bidding farewell to guests, dropped everything upon hearing the news and went to find the restaurant manager to ask them to serve the food to his friends.
Lessons learned from attending a wedding in the countryside.
Many times, my friends and I in the neighborhood have reminded each other that when invited to a wedding in the countryside, we must arrive early and absolutely not be late, or we'll be in trouble.
A few years ago, a friend in our group from Vinh Linh district ( Quang Tri province), 100km from the center of Hue city, invited us to his wedding.
The wedding invitation stated that the reception would start at 11:00 AM. Calculating a travel time of approximately three hours, the group unanimously agreed to leave for the wedding at exactly 8:00 AM.
We arranged to meet at a cafe to share a ride, but unexpectedly, my friend and I were the first to arrive on time. It wasn't until 9 a.m. that everyone had arrived and the car finally departed.
By the time we arrived, it was almost noon. As soon as we got out of the car, we saw my friend and his wife standing at the restaurant entrance, bidding farewell to departing guests.
"I knew you guys would be a bit stingy, so I specifically asked the restaurant to reserve two tables. Luckily it was my wedding; if it were someone else's, you'd all be leaving hungry," my friend joked, then urged everyone to join the feast quickly before they got hungry.
Various ways to remind guests to attend a wedding reception.
To avoid the "flexible" timing issue affecting their wedding reception, many brides and grooms have come up with ways to remind friends and relatives to arrive on time, preventing others from having to wait for a long time and getting tired.
Groom Ngoc Bao shared that reminding each person to arrive early for the photo session is a way to ensure everyone is on time. Bao said that many people also cleverly print reminders on their wedding invitations or schedule appointments through social media apps like Zalo and Facebook, so that these apps will notify each person on their phone screen when the time comes.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thoi-quen-di-dam-cuoi-day-thun-chu-tiec-do-khoc-khach-do-cuoi-20240806141756786.htm
