I had dinner last night with a friend of mine that I used to go to school with. I haven’t seen her since January, so it was nice to catch up. She’s getting married in March next year, and this will be the third wedding I have attended in my life (not including my own).

The first wedding I went to was in 1990, and it was great because the bride was a stickler for etiquette (or at least, what she thinks is etiquette), and wanted to make sure that everything was done ‘properly’. As a result there was a formal sit-down dinner, bombonniere, slices of wedding cake etc etc. It was a great reception (the ceremony itself was pretty ordinary), but unfortunately I was only 14 and didn’t get to drink anything. Not that I really wanted to at that age, but now that I’m an adult I’m all too aware of missed opportunities.

The second wedding was a few years later I think, when my godmother got married. My godmother is lovely, but her husband is a tool of the highest order, and while I think cocktail receptions are great and practical, since you don’t have to worry about seating plans and a whole lot of other rubbish you have to deal with for sit-down dinners, this reception sucked because it was severely under-catered. Every time a platter of something was brought out, everyone converged on it like vultures and most people missed out. So it was quite disappointing (because everyone knows that weddings are about the guests, and not the couple getting married), but of course the bride and groom didn’t notice because they were high on wedding-y emotions, as it should be I suppose.

My friend’s wedding will also be a cocktail reception, which I’m relieved about because I had the feeling that if it were going to be a sit-down meal, I’d be seated at a table with someone else from school who I was pretty sure was going to be there (and it turns out that she is). To be honest I’m just really over 95% of the people I went to school with, so I wasn’t looking forward to making conversation with her, so it will work out well because she won’t be stuck talking to me, and vice versa. Cocktail receptions are such a great idea, which is why we had one for our wedding. It’s just easier all round.