File this under inappropriate

One advantage to having everyone around me get married before me is that I get to attend all their receptions and see things I like and don't like about them and what I'd hope to be able to do at my reception some day.

Recently I attended an absolutely lovely reception. There was no two-hour long receiving line, because there was no line. Instead you signed the guest book and then found a small bottle of Martinelli's that had your name on it and the number of the table you were sitting at. At the tables there was a name card. The dinner, yes, full dinner, not just tiny plate with trail mix and a brownie, was delicious - salad, main course, and desert of chocolate mousse and bridal cake. The table setting was beautiful. There was soft music in the background. So all that was really missing was the dance floor to take advantage of the soft music.

And then the father-of-the-bride stood up to say a few words. And he ruined it!

The bride is about 35 right now. And the father said that the announcement said that he and his wife were pleased to announce the wedding of their daughter, but that a word was missing from it and it should have said they were pleased to finally announce the wedding of their daughter. For rude! Those that I went with were embarrassed not only for the bride, but for the father. Who says things like that?

And then it got worse. He started talking about how he had always taken care of her, especially with her credit card problems, multiple credit card problems, and how he'd always bailed her out and it would now be up to her new husband to do that. Yes, let's pull out all the dirty laundry and air it out for all the guests at the wedding, the supposedly happiest day of your life. It was bad.

The bride's older sister got up a little later and presented a gift bag to the groom and welcomed him to the family. The bride has two older brothers and two older sisters. The sister said that he'd married all of their hero. That was what the father should have said.

So, beautiful reception, minus the father-of-the-bride. And of course dancing is always fun.