Ah, weddings: some love to attend them and some love to hate them. From black tie to completely casual, we've all attended at least one wedding and typically have a good understanding of proper wedding guest etiquette. Most of the time we leave relatively unscathed: basking in the love of the bride and groom, bellies full, perhaps a little (or a lot) tipsy, and ready to take off our high heels.
But what happens when you get invited to a wedding with a list of "demands" outside of the typical "please arrive early" or "child free reception" request? You might have heard of the "Unplugged Wedding" where guest we not allowed to take pictures with their devices. This pales in comparison to the bride who cancelled her wedding four days before the date when she didn't receive $1500 in cash from each guest to fund her "Kardashian-style" nuptials.
In another recent story that screams "Team Too Much", a Reddit user uploaded a "list" of demands from a wedding planner—which has now gone viral—that dragged the bride-to-be's outrageous requests.
The email screenshot—which has been upvoted nearly 11,000 times and has almost 1,300 comments and counting—starts off relatively mundane, with a call for a final head count.
"Good morning, my name is [REDACTED] and I am the wedding coordinator for [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. I am reaching out to all confirmed guest to do a final head count and go over some rules and regulations of the wedding day."
But as you read on, the list goes from completely understandable—please arrive 15-30 minutes early—to utterly over the top—hairstyle demands and admission price included. Check out this list if you needed a good LOL today:
Rules and regulations:
- Please arrive 15-30 minutes early.
- Please DO NOT wear white, cream or ivory.
- Please do not wear anything other than a basic bob or ponytail.
- Please do not have a full face of makeup.
- Do not record during the seramony.
- Do not check in on FB until instructed.
- Use #[REDACTED] when posting all pictures.
- DO NOT TALK TO THE BRIDE AT ALL.
- Everyone will toast with Rémy. No acceptance.
- Lastly must come with gift 75$ or more or you want be admitted.
"First of all" no white, cream or ivory attire: cool. But a bob or ponytail? So you want me to not only find a dress, shoes, accessories and transportation to your wedding, but I need to get a new wig, too? Oh, okay. And what exactly do you mean by a face full of makeup? Like, I don't even go to the grocery store without foundation, mascara and a lip, but you need me at your wedding barefaced doing the #NoMakeupChallenge? And what even is a "seramony"?
The one that really took me all the way out was the "DO NOT TALK TO THE BRIDE AT ALL" part. Does this include everyone or just the email recipients, because I'm gonna need for you to make this make sense. As one Reddit poster put it, this overzealous wedding coordinator is liable to do the absolute most:
@HelloTiredImDad: And do you Mrs. Smith take...
Wedding coordinator: HEY! I SAID NOBODY TALKS TO THE WIFE! NOW GET OUT!
It is understandable that as a wedding coordinator you want to make sure that all ducks are in a row and that there will be no upstaging the bride.
However, this "rules and regulations" list sounds like it's either coming from a delusional and petty bride herself, or the wedding coordinator is secretly living out her own "dream" wedding scenario, quickly turning it into everyone else's nightmare. I'm not the only one that thinks it might be bridezilla gone full dragon, as LadyBarclay points out:
"I can't believe any wedding coordinator - meaning a professional one - would be so rude, tacky, or in such poor command of the English language. That this post is instead from the bride, or a close friend she roped into helping her, thinking she sneakily found a way to dictate how her guests will behave/perform without being labelled a bridezilla? THAT sounds more likely."
Had I received this email, I would have quickly thrown my invitation AND the friendship in the trash. It's one thing to ensure a head count or to even kindly request a cash gift, but to tell me what to give, how to present myself and exactly what to drink is too much. You don't know what my financial status is nor are you privy to whether or not I have an allergy to your drink of choice or if I'm even drinking at all.
I admit, I had a Bridezilla experience at my own wedding. I was completely frustrated when my own family hijacked my plans of getting eloped with just a few guests and turned it into a full-on party with over 30 people, none of whom we had invited. I was fuming!
But ladies, this long list of unreasonable demands is on a whole new level.
What's the craziest wedding request you've heard of or made yourself? Let us know in the comments.
Featured image by Shutterstock
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak
