Etiquette & Evening Wedding Woes

One of the things that surprises most attendants of weddings is the fact that etiquette in evening weddings is slightly different than non evening weddings. For some reason, the expectations are slightly different when the wedding happens at night. I don’t know why this is, but something in the unconscious minds of the hosts tells them that the normal wedding behavior is no longer acceptable.

If you are writing a list of etiquette for evening wedding tips for yourself, write it with care. You should never confine yourself to a specific behavior just because you think it will please the hosts!

You should always be yourself wherever you go. Do not follow specific rules to change yourself as a person, but rather omit certain things from your repertoire of actions. It will make you look like a more debonair person, and much more classy. On top of that, you will be less likely to offend someone.

Considering the Other Guests

The first thing you should remember when you are thinking of evening wedding etiquette is the time of night. Usually by night time, the guests are slightly more sleepy. This leads to a more low key ceremony and reception.

Therefore if you are the sort of person that is outgoing and rambunctious all the time, you should try and tone down your behavior to an appropriate level. When most people are tired, they don’t really feel like making excessive conversation with the person next to them. Just enjoy the ceremony, and you can save your talkativeness for the reception afterwards.

Levels of Casualness

Usually during evening weddings, the main evening wedding etiquette is to dress slightly more casual. Instead of renting a tuxedo, during an evening wedding you could probably get away with a nice pair of slacks and a collared shirt.

This is not an official rule of evening weddings, but I believe that it is something deeply psychological. During the evening, people are more casual. Therefore they will be much more accepting of people who do not have the nicest clothes on. In fact, they probably won’t even notice it.

Different Gift Expectations

Usually, an evening wedding is slightly different from that of a day wedding in the area of gifts. During day weddings, gifts are fairly standard practice. All of the guests bring some sort of handy thing for the newly wed couple. However, during evening weddings this does not happen as much. Since there is no time after the ceremony for the couple to open the gifts (everyone wants to go home and go to sleep by then!) people don’t usually bring gifts.

Basically, the goal of your evening wedding etiquette is to remain more calm and relaxed throughout the whole wedding. This is to prevent making people uncomfortable if they are tired and don’t feel like being sociable. You also want to be casual, since the evening is the time everyone is off of work and therefore does not feel formal any more.

It may take a few evening weddings before you are used to the different attitude and feel throughout all of the guests, but once you get used to how to act you will feel right at home going to weddings in the evening instead of during the day.

See Also:

Bridal Shower Presnt Etiquette