Guest Goes Viral for Showing Almost Empty Wedding Venue Nearly 2 Hours After Start Time: 'An Unspoken Rule' (Exclusive)
"People knew to arrive at just the right moment, ensuring the bride wasn’t kept waiting," the wedding guest tells PEOPLE
Married couple Sarah and Linus went viral on TikTok for showing a clip of a nearly empty wedding venue an hour and a half after the Egyptian nuptials were scheduled to start
"The invitation stated that the wedding would begin at 5 p.m., but the venue didn’t start filling up until around 6:30 p.m," Sarah tells PEOPLE. "The bride and groom arrived at 7 p.m."
Sarah says that guests arriving late "wasn’t considered rude" or "disrespectful." Because the "party-only wedding" had no formal ceremony, "it’s more common for people to arrive late"
Social media users were shocked to see how some weddings differ in punctuality norms.
Intercultural couple Sarah, 26, and Linus, 35, attended their friends' wedding, which was hosted by an Egyptian family, in December 2024. More than 200 guests were invited to the nuptials, yet Sarah showed a nearly empty venue after waiting for an hour and a half in a now-viral video recently posted on TikTok.
"My German husband wanted to be punctual to the Egyptian wedding 😂😂," Sarah titled her video before showing zero other wedding guests in frame "1.5 hours after the official start."
"Hahaha I tried to warn him that no one will be punctual 😂😂," she added in the caption.
She clarified to PEOPLE that there actually were a few other guests at the venue at the time, including the bride and groom's families. But most attendees, including the bride and groom, were very fashionably late.
"The invitation stated that the wedding would begin at 5 p.m., but the venue didn’t start filling up until around 6:30 p.m," Sarah tells PEOPLE. "The bride and groom arrived at 7 p.m."
In some cultures, a wedding not starting at its designated time may come off as rude or inconsiderate of people's schedules. Sarah notes that this especially "depends on the type of wedding." In this case, her friends' wedding celebration didn't have a formal ceremony, so it was "more common" for guests to arrive well past the stated start time.
"Since there was no formal ceremony, it was normal for the event to start later," Sarah says. "If there had been a church or mosque ceremony beforehand, people would have been punctual."
She continues: "For party-only weddings, though, it’s more common for people to arrive later — still arriving before the bride and groom, but it is common for them also to arrive later. It’s not considered disrespectful; it’s just part of the culture."
Sarah and Linus, who met seven years ago, say they didn't mind waiting. It "wasn't boring at all" because they got to know other guests as they slowly trickled in, and had fun taking pictures in a photo booth.
"Arriving late wasn’t considered rude," she says. "It gave us time to socialize with family, meet new people and enjoy the atmosphere. Everyone danced and celebrated into the night, making it a fun and memorable experience."
By the time the bride and groom got there, all of their guests had arrived.
"It was almost an unspoken rule — people knew to arrive at just the right moment, ensuring the bride wasn’t kept waiting," Sarah says.
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There were more than 1,000 comments underneath Sarah's TikTok video about wedding punctuality. Some commenters understood the cultural norm while others were flabbergasted and offended by the situation.
"As seen in the comments, so many other people from other cultures around the world describe a very similar approach to weddings and punctuality in general," Sarah says. "I think it resonated with so many people because punctuality and time management are deeply rooted in cultural norms. It sparked conversations about how different societies view time and the unspoken rules surrounding it."
Sarah found it "disheartening" to see the level of negativity and racism her "lighthearted comedy video" generated from those who didn't understand that being late wasn't considered rude. She had to "delete around 200 extreme hate comments."
"Yes, punctuality can be seen as a sign of respect, and I agree with that," she says. "But in situations where everyone understands the social norms — like the timing of the bride’s arrival here — it’s not perceived as disrespectful."
Read the original article on People
