Tag Archives: manners

You Should Know How to Do This: Being in a Wedding Party

It’s summer (or, more accurately, “a weekend from March through October”), so everyone and their brother is getting married. If you’re 19-35, you likely have at least three scheduled throughout the season. If you’re 19-35 and a Southerner, you’re…well, you’re probably not reading a blog because you’re at a wedding right now.

This is me as a bridesmaid, age 19.

This is me as a bridesmaid, age 19.

I’m not going to write a post about how to be a wedding guest, because if you DON’T know how to do that, you’re probably also the person writing the insane comments about how Obama is a reptilian alien sent to destroy us at the bottom of Slate articles.

If you’re actually a monster, here’s how you do it: you RSVP according to their wishes and on time. You bring a date or your children if your written invitation specifically says that your others (significant or otherwise) are invited but you don’t ask if you can otherwise, and you certainly do just wing it. You send them a gift from their registry or to the charity they’ve named or you give them cash to avoid anything like this. You show up on time to their wedding and you do not make a spectacle of yourself or complain at any time. THAT IS IT. You just arrive, act polite, send a gift, and then go home. If your girlfriend has to stay home, you can dance with available flower girls and aunties and everyone will think you’re sweet and you’ll have fun anyway. If you can’t afford to get a sitter, you can’t afford to go to the wedding. If you think everything on the registry is tacky, maybe reevaluate who your friends are because maybe they’re gonna stay tacky.

But I digress.

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You Should Know How To Do This: Writing a Thank-You Note

On Tuesday, I had one of the best mail days of my young life. I got a care package, I got an unexpected refund from my car insurance, and I got not one but THREE letters. Needless to say, I was so excited I nearly perished.

Now, three of these people probably knew they were making my day (when you send unexpected presents in the mail, that’s almost certainly your intent), and one of them was automatically generated (unless Flo is now personally sending out all the Progressive statements), but one of the notes was a little thank-you card for some minor favor I had delivered some weeks before. It was a really simple letter- maybe three sentences- but I felt like showing these people around town had been an appreciated, worthwhile task and that they liked me.

You, too, can inspire these very warm feelings in others with almost no effort at all.

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Lazy Sunday

My babely friend Mel is visiting (a post on our kitchen adventures later!), so y’all can read while we’re out frolicking in the ocean.

  • We should just have believed Liberace, since that’s what he wanted.
  • Can you even imagine how unbearable each and every patron of this nightclub must be?
  • If you’re feeling anxious about the PRISM stuff, here’s a guide to the internet sans tapped companies (yay for WordPress!).
  • I no longer need this guide (hooray!), but I have some recently-graduated friends who may. Be productive! Don’t waste this time! Don’t ever say “funemployment” to me ever!
  • Well, that’s one way to get attention for your new creative venture.
  • America’s unregulated ghost tour market is something I grapple with nearly every day at work. I wish this were a joke.
  • A liberal at Fox News.
  • A roundup of anecdotes about summer jobs of the famouses.
  • The case for being allowed to age out of being cool, as made by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
  • Being polite is the death of art.

One Leg at a Time: Spring Weddings

One of my readers emailed me the other morning to tell me she has approximately 35 weddings to attend in the next few months (exaggeration mine). She was feeling a little weird about trying to figure out her wardrobe choices and asked for my help. I am extremely excited to provide said help, since I plan weddings for a living and also because I fancy myself a contemporary Amy Vanderbilt.

katwedding

This is my beloved friend Kat’s wedding at her gorgeous church here at home in Kentucky.

At approximately age 22, all your friends will start to get married. It’ll start with one or two, and you’ll be able to explain it away. Then, at around age 24, people will begin to get married without explanation. At age 26, you are suddenly awash in wedding invitations. Please feel free to +1.5 years to these numbers if you’re from north of Maryland or west of Dallas, but really, the point remains thus: once that tide starts, there is not one damn thing you can do to stop it except buy a bunch of things from Crate and Barrel. You’re an adult. Adults do stuff like get married. Calm down, okay? Weddings are super fun! You get to buy a new outfit, drink other people’s drinks, and try to make out with a cute gal/guy you may never see again. It’s like fraternity parties for older people. BUT WHAT DO YOU WEAR?

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