Leaving The Reception Early. Abby has her opinion, what's yours?

Dear Abby | Early exit from wedding dinner draws fire from mother-in-law
By JEANNE PHILLIPS

DEAR ABBY: My mother-in-law is upset with my wife and me for sneaking out of a wedding reception early (before the dinner was served). There was a long delay between the reception and the dinner, and a DJ was playing loud, deafening rock ’n’ roll music.

We were seated near a speaker and it was virtually impossible to carry on a conversation.

My mother-in-law says if you accept the dinner invitation it is bad manners not to eat the dinner because it cost the hosts money. I say, if the reception has intolerable environmental factors inflicted on the guests, leaving early is acceptable. Were we rude to leave as we did? — Lost My Appetite in South Carolina

DEAR LOST MY APPETITE: Let me put it this way — your mother-in-law has a point. Because the music was so loud that you were uncomfortable, you should have asked your hosts to instruct the DJ to lower the volume somewhat. It would have been preferable to walking out.

Ohh, I’d have to agree with Abby on this one. They walked out? I get that you don’t want to bug the bride and groom (who would most likely be gracious about it and solved the problem immediately), but they could have said something to the DJ themselves. Or the catering manager, who could have said something to the DJ. All of these people are invested in making sure the guests are comfortable. Basically, there’s a few different options before getting up and leaving, so Man Up. What do you guys think?

On the other hand, to be proactive (because you can’t always count on people to Man Up, unfortunately), it wouldn’t hurt to talk to the DJ/Catering manager about the speaker placement in the room. One or both should be able to provide a solution, maybe even as simple as moving the table, or turning the volume down on the potentially offending speaker. Never know until you ask.

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