Wedding Madness

Be warned, this is going to be a vent-post…

In a few minutes, I have to get moving and get ready for my friend’s wedding down here in Key West. My friend Renee and her fiance had quite the adventure getting here. They were supposed to fly down Monday morning but then we saw a Facebook post from her fiance about Delta Airlines jacking up their travel plans. Turns out that they were scheduled to fly an MD-88 from Cleveland to Atlanta on Delta and surprise, surprise, there was a significant delay caused by a mechanical issue (because seriously, an MD-88? Are those things still flight-worthy? Didn’t the Wright Brothers built those in their bicycle shop? C’mon Delta, retire those damn planes already…) and the end result is that they spent 12 hours in the Cleveland airport hoping to get on another flight – and then they ended up having to go back to the airport the following morning at 6am to try the whole day over again. Keep in mind, they are traveling with their 1-year old!

I picked them up from the Key West Airport yesterday morning and they were in surprisingly good spirits, even the baby, which is way better than I would have been, particularly since Delta didn’t send their bags on the flight they were on. So they had to wait a couple more hours at their hotel for their luggage to be delivered. (Thankfully she carried on her wedding dress.) So you would think that was enough drama and stress for any one bride-to-be to deal with, right?

Wrong… I picked them up from the airport and as we were driving, we got into the conversation about who all was coming to the wedding. And I was shocked to hear that the guest list consists of her mom and dad, a couple friend of her mom and dad, and me and my hubby (and the baby too, I guess). That’s it. My friend then proceeds to tell me that her sister and the groom-to-be’s mom weren’t even told about the wedding because of the worries that they would crash it uninvited and try to wreck their day.

Look, I actually know the sister and it doesn’t surprise me that she wasn’t invited. If I call her a train wreck, I’m being charitable. And I could completely see how she would try to upstage the event to make sure that all of the attention was on her because she has been that way her entire life. She got pissed at Renee for being pregnant because it “stole the thunder” from her second child. I cannot even image what she would do during the ceremony to divert attention from where it rightfully belongs today.

And that reminds me of the debacle that another bride-to-be is facing as she prepares for her wedding this weekend (I’m sure none of you read any celebrity or royal news but if the names Meghan and Harry mean anything to you, I will give you the head nod of recognition and stay quiet about your secret…). And it really got me thinking how in the world do people even begin to think they have any right to someone else’s wedding? Seriously, what the hell is wrong with our world when people can justify being that self-centered? I thought the wedding day was about the bride and groom, not about someone’s sister, or second cousin, or even the mother of one of the participants. What the hell gives anyone the right to demand to be part of the guest list, or be in attendance, or be part of someone else’s wedding? I don’t know if I just grew up with a completely different moral compass or what; but the behavior that I’ve seen from some people in relation to weddings that are not their own is downright repulsive.

I’m honored to have been invited to my friend’s wedding. To know that basically I’m the representative of every friend she has ever had is actually a weighty responsibility. And I realize that I’m very fortunate to have the means and the ability to traipse off to Key West this week to be here. I just don’t get how some other people don’t see how being asked to share one of the most important days in someone else’s life is a privilege, not a right. And if you’re not asked, maybe there are reasons for that – reasons that go beyond a narrow viewpoint that you’re entitled to be there as a result of birth. It could financial, it could be space constraints, it could be that you’re a freaking sociopathic assh*le… But the fact of the matter is that a wedding that is not your own is not yours.

Ok, that out of my system, I’m going to go get ready to be there for my friend on her special day and hope that my new phone has enough memory space for the photos I’m going to take…