As a wedding guest myself, I don't really understand guest complaints

I agree. The day is a celebration FOR the bride and groom. Family and friends are invited to help celebrate and send them off on a new chapter of their life. It's not the couple's responsibility to make sure everyone else's needs are met along the way. It's not like we're charging a cover! Lol.

Yeah I appreciated all the things I got as a guest (food, drinks even if it's only a partially paid bar or limited bar, favours, general fun times and dancing etc) when I went to weddings before. And now that I know more about what goes into a wedding from planning my own, I have a LOT MORE appreciation!

Although... that won't stop me from complaining about a wedding I was a bridesmaid in, and I had to buy my own dinner and drinks at the reception. yeah. I feel like that's worthy of a grudge. LOL

If someone complains loudly at my wedding after all we have done to try to accomodate everyone's needs as much as possible, I would say "Well if you don't like it, you can leave! In fact I insist. BYE FELICIA!"

I have only been to one wedding where I wanted to complain. It was held in the middle of June here in the Cali valley on a day that was 104 degrees. The original plan was the ceremony start at 2pm, followed by a four hour break between ceremony and dinner so guests could play lawn games and have drinks. Dinner was to be at 6pm, with dancing after. Now keep in mind, we all knew about two weeks before this day was going to be unusually hot. So everyone started telling the couple to move their time up and not have people sitting OUTSIDE for four hours in the heat, and just have the ceremony later. They didnt want to do this so they kept with the original plans. Did not provide any type of fans or cooling. So we baked for the ceremony (only had umbrellas for the first two rows for family). Then about 300 people got to bake in the sun for four hours unless they could squeeze in under the small patio that was at the venue. Most of the older people had to leave due to the heat and some didn't come back for dinner. Everyone else just drank to keep cool, so you can imagine the drunk shit show at 6pm when food was finally served. After dinner everyone left, about 30 of us stayed for dancing when the weather had finally came down to about 85. People had changed into shorts and tank tops when the came back. To this day I still haven't seen any pictures and that was two years ago. Overall I still had a lot of fun, but my dress is ruined from sweat stains, and I was horribly sun burned despite bringing my own sunscreen and felt sick the next day. Their intentions were good but they did not take their guests into consideration when they knew the weather conditions and did not provide much in terms of a solution for the heat. Over half of their guests were from out of state and had no where to go except into the patio area until they could eat.

You win Michy. That is horrible.

I have a few family members on my mother's side that are definitely complainers. I keep telling my parents the one thing I can picture on the day of my wedding is my grandmother and few aunt sitting together in a dark corner complaining about the flowers, how much money we spent, the flower stands, how dry the food was, how rude the waiter is, etc. They do it all the time for every event, that is normal behavior for them.

I've already gotten their complaints during the planning process which is why they're no longer involved in it.

I'm looking forward to having the wedding that me and my fiancé want with no pressure from anyone else. I'm anticipating and have already accepted that they will complain, but I understand that they will no matter what.

Etiquette works both ways. As important as it is to be a gracious host, it's equally important to be a gracious guest. Your host has considered you important enough to them to invite you into their home, or in the case of a wedding, to a very important event in their lives. What they serve to drink or eat may not always be to your taste, or as good as a venue's food is any other time, something may go horribly wrong.

Etiquette works both ways. As important as it is to be a gracious host, it's equally important to be a gracious guest. Your host has considered you important enough to them to invite you into their home, or in the case of a wedding, to a very important event in their lives. What they serve to drink or eat may not always be to your taste, or as good as a venue's food is any other time, something may go horribly wrong.