Don't want to start an argument here but....

I went to a wedding this weekend. Specificly, my cousins. Now, we grew up together and I love him to death and his now wife is a wonderful woman and I am very happy for them but they seemed to have left their brains at home because they were opening cards AT THE WEDDING as they were being handed to them and you could see the groom open his wallet several times to put money in!!

I almost died.

Now, Here's where the 'starting-an-argument' part comes in....they also had a cash bar.

And it wasn't cheep either. I suggest to any brides even considering this to not do it, or to at least reconsider doing maybe a wine/beer only sort of situation. I over heard several comments that I won't even repeat in full about removing money and/or re-writing checks to the couple. (I was informed that this is a common practice which I was unaware of that I personally find completely deplorable). They also had about 20% more people then they should have...there was no space between tables and since I was seated right near the buffet I heard the phrase 'Can you squeeze in a bit' about 600 times over the course of the evening. Out of courtesy to my family, I did not utter a word or make an sort of indication that I was supremely annoyed. We also tried to move the table over a bit to accomodate some sort of aisle at which point the man who was seated right behind me decided he needed to move his chair back and 'stretch out'. Again, not wanting to be the family member who started a confrontation at my cousins wedding....I kept my mouth shut. Oh, and did I mention there was no air-conditioning?

To an extent I can understand the cash bar, the couple has a child and his needs MUST come before the need for the guests at your wedding to drink, however I don't know how they thought it was okay to flash their monitary gifts all over the place.

I would just like to add that even with all of these factors FH and I had a wonderful time. Their ceremony was on the beach in Cape Cod, MA and the bride was barefoot (which I loved) and it was really beautiful and touching (I cried lol). It made me a thousand times more exited to marry my FH (and I really didn't think that was possible, lol).

One more thing before I finish: As we were leaving and saying our goodbyes to the groom (my cousin and the rest of my family) we noticed that the bride was missing. Not wanting to be rude, my family searched up and down, outside and in for her. After about 15 minutes we decided to leave without saying goodbye to her (which I and several others were uncomfortable with). As were driving down the road, about 1/2 mile down we saw her chowing down a slice of pizza at a local pizza parlor....how did we know it was her? She was still in her wedding dress.

I love the bride and groom and wish them all the best for their future together and I did actually have a wonderful time at their wedding but this will be an event my family will probably never stop talking about