‘Aggressively controlling’: Bride enrages the internet - and her family - with drink tickets at her wedding

Bride criticized for ‘controlling’ when guests can drink at wedding reception (Getty Images)
Bride criticized for ‘controlling’ when guests can drink at wedding reception (Getty Images)

A bride has been criticized for “controlling” when guests can drink at her wedding.

In a recent post shared to the popular “Am I The A**hole?” Reddit forum, a woman explained why she ultimately decided not to have an open bar at her wedding.

“I come from an alcoholic heavy family and simply don’t feel comfortable being around people who are drinking heavily,” she wrote. “Instead, my fiancé and I have decided to have a drink ticket like service.”

She went on to detail why she was happy about having the drink tickets, which she said the wedding venue suggested. “With that service we’ve been able to customize how we want alcoholic beverages to be handled at our reception,” she continued.

The bride explained that when she sent out the invitations, she included guests’ drink tickets, since she didn’t want them to be “shocked” about the drinking rules when they got to the wedding. She then explained how many alcoholic beverages each guest could have when using the tickets, before sharing some other drinking rules she had for the wedding.

“The drink service bit of the card said, essentially, that alcoholic drinks were limited to two per of age guest,” the bride wrote. “The ‘tickets’ are non-transferable, and like the other beverages offered, [drinks] would need to be ordered from your seat at your assigned table. Drinks were also to be enjoyed at your assigned table.”

According to the bride, her family and her partner’s family are not pleased about the drinks cards and have called her “a lot of rude things.” She claimed that her partner has also scrutinized her a little for having the drinking policy, before noting how the backlash has affected her.

“The most common being ‘bridezilla,’ but I did have an uncle reach out to me and say I’m an a**hole for trying to ‘spoil the fun of a wedding reception,’” she explained. “The response has been mostly negative and has been from all sides of family and friends and now my head is swirling as I try to figure out what to do.”

The post has quickly gone viral on Reddit, with more than 4,600 upvotes. In the comments, multiple people claimed that while the wedding didn’t need an open bar, the bride shouldn’t be deciding when people at the wedding drink.

“Your ticket plan went from moderately novel to aggressively controlling the more you explained it. Are you going to have security tackle Aunt Joan if she gets out of her chair with a glass of Chard in her hand?” one wrote.

“It’s totally okay to not have an open bar at a wedding. Even limiting consumption is kinda okay,” another added. “But forcing people to drink it sitting at their assigned table ?! That’s over controlling. Just seems like you want your guests to jump through hoops for you for no good reasons than because you can because you are the bride.”

“You can not have alcohol at your wedding if you want (people will leave early, so be prepared). But thinking you get to decide where they can have their drinks? Bizarre and controlling. You can’t reasonably limit people to their table like this,” a third wrote. “Your wedding sounds like an unenjoyable event to attend with so many restrictions for your ‘guests’ being treated like school children.”