My wife and I had been graciously invited to a friend’s wedding, which was planned for roughly seventy guests, with the majority of attendees being family members. Upon our arrival at the venue, we were seated at a table alongside several other guests. We mingled well with the other nice people and thoroughly enjoyed chatting and having a good time. The ceremony itself was quite lovely, and both my friend and his new wife looked incredibly happy. After the main ceremony concluded, the reception began, and every table received two bottles of wine and some bread with butter. With the open bar operating swiftly, we quickly started enjoying a few drinks to celebrate. Then, the highly anticipated food service began. It looked delicious, set up as a buffet, and I, being a bit buzzed, was very much looking forward to getting some much-needed sustenance into my empty stomach.
The plan was to call a few tables at a time to approach the buffet, which seemed totally fine. Understandably, the first few tables called were exclusively comprised of family members from both the bride’s and groom’s sides. However, I soon noticed a significant problem with the bride’s in-laws, who seemed to be consuming disproportionately large amounts. While I would never shame anyone for their eating habits, I distinctly observed the massive, overflowing helpings they were taking while our table patiently waited to be called for the meal. More alarmingly, I saw them going back for seconds—multiple times—before all of the other guests had even been given the chance to eat their first serving, and nobody from the staff stopped them. I thought this was incredibly rude behavior, but I just assumed the hosts had ordered a substantial surplus of food.
To my complete surprise and deep disappointment, by the time our table was finally called up to the buffet, there was absolutely nothing left to eat. I inquired if any more food would be brought out from the kitchen, but apparently, the service for the main meal had already concluded. We managed to scrape together the extremely little food that remained and returned to our table, still profoundly hungry. Feeling quite annoyed and hungry, our table started quietly complaining about the first group of guests who had devoured all the food. It was then that someone casually mentioned they could really go for a slice of pizza, giving me the very drunken, yet brilliant idea to actually order some. We all quickly pitched in cash and ordered four large pizzas along with some chicken wings from a small local pizza place close to the venue, ensuring a rapid delivery time.
I met the delivery driver discreetly outside the venue and carried the food triumphantly back to our table, where we all immediately began to eat our emergency dinner. Other tables quickly noticed the unexpected food and asked where the pizza had come from; apparently, many of the guests seated close to us hadn’t received any food either, so we happily shared our impromptu feast with them. This pizza appearance caused a visible commotion as other starving guests started asking the wedding party about the availability of more food, confirming many others were also left unfed. My friend, the groom, soon approached my table to question why I had ordered the external food. His bride, who was clearly furious about the ruined aesthetic of her perfect day, stood glaring at us. I simply explained that we hadn’t eaten anything because the food had run out long before our table was even called, and we were incredibly hungry and had been drinking on an empty stomach.
My friend then rather annoyedly suggested that we should have simply stepped out to eat and then returned, a proposition I rejected, explaining that having intoxicated guests wandering around town searching for food was certainly not the best idea. He didn’t seem to appreciate my honesty but returned to his bride, who was still shooting daggers our way. Frankly, what were we supposed to do, simply starve ourselves through the entire reception? As we finished the last of the pizza and wings, the father of the bride—one of the infamous in-laws—came directly to our table and asked where the remaining food had come from. This is where I perhaps made myself the actual jerk. Only two slices remained, and I knew he was eyeing them intensely. I asked my table if anyone wanted the final pieces, and when everyone declined, I immediately scooped them onto my own plate.
I looked directly at him as I started eating the last slice and told him plainly, “No, you and everyone at your tables already took way more than your fair share of the buffet, eating all of it. That is precisely why we had to order food in the first place, and now you have the sheer nerve to ask us to share the scraps.” His face turned bright red with embarrassment and he quickly retreated to his table. A visibly loud and intense discussion erupted among their family, and they all glared at us with visible fury. The bride was even more visibly ticked off than before and had a brief but heated argument with my friend. He eventually returned and told us we had to leave the wedding early. Not wanting to cause any further issues, my wife and I called a taxi and quickly left the premises.
