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COVID Wedding Invitation Separating Guests Into 3 Groups Sparks Debate On Twitter

Weddings are always catalysts for drama, as people lose all perspective planning their “special day” that costs as much as a down payment on a house. During COVID-19, it’s even worse. Community spread is one of the most common ways that the coronavirus takes over entire families, and weddings are little petri dishes. Many people have sensibly postponed their weddings are had extremely small ceremonies, knowing they can have their parties later. But there are lots of people who are not sensible at all who believe the ceremony must go on.

Editorial director of the Observer, Mary Von Aue posted an invitation to a wedding. It’s unclear if it went to them or someone sent them a pic of it, but if I received this invitation it would probably be the beginning of the end of my friendship with the sender.

It starts, “Please understand that our venue is limited in the number of guests we will be able to accommodate for our wedding day. As much as we would love to have each and every one of you join us on our big day, we are forced to split our guests into groups to ensure we do not surpass our capacity restrictions.”

So, don’t have your freaking wedding in a closed venue during a pandemic??? Whatever, that’s not even the shocking part. If you do insist on having a party where people should wear masks and not be near each other, it does “make sense” to have fewer guests. What’s more surprising is how blatant they are about who they’re choosing to include. They write:

Group A: Please RSVP as soon as possible. We appreciate your promptness as we will be able to extend any vacant seats to additional guests.

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Okay. Now here’s the really insulting part:

Groups B & C: please keep a close watch on our wedding website for notice that we have space available. If you already know that you are unable to join us, it is helpful that you decline via the RSVP function on our website.

Can’t wait to check their wedding website to see if I got in like it’s the Hamilton lottery. It continues:

If possible we encourage our guests to hire a babysitter for the night and leave your children at home. As much as we love your kids, we are doing our best to make space for all the guests we can. We also ask for our single guests to forgo their plus one if possible. We appreciate your understanding.

Sounds like a freaking blast. The person who received this invitation is told at the bottom, “YOU ARE IN GROUP A.” Would you be flattered or disgusted? Most people were horrified by the rudeness of this missive:

While others thought it was completely understandable, because planning a wedding is expensive and COVID-19 is making it harder:

Some also pointed out that grouping guests this way isn’t uncommon, it’s just weird to be so blatant about it:

In my opinion, good etiquette dictates we don’t tell our friends that they’re third-tier to their face, especially if we’re expecting any gifts at the ceremony. Or postpone until there’s a vaccine.

More tacky weddings:

Aimeé Lutkin