[PokerFink]

I chimed in on the last thread, and I'll do it again. I worked this past summer as a caterer and did a lot of weddings, so I have pretty good insight into this.

Hell, I'll write a guide for this.

Crashing a Cocktail Hour: This should be a piece of cake. The caterers/bartenders will have no idea, and probably woulden't care anyway. The bridal party is usually off taking pictures, which means all the big hitters (bride, groom, parents, bridesmaids and best man) are busy and won't notice you. This has basically no downside.

Crashing a Buffet-Style Dinner: This shoulden't be too difficult either. When you get to the cocktail hour, grab one of the servers (caterers) and find out what type of dinner is being served. If it's buffet, find another server and ask him/her to place a couple extra chairs out since there are a few extra guests. If there are younger servers working, grab them, since some 20 year old kid is not going to ask questions. Throw him a fiver and there is no way he'll ever rat you out. Once the dinner starts, just make sure to avoid the bride/groom. If anyone asks, just introduce yourself and act like you belong, no one will know the difference. The people serving at the buffet could care less. Also, buffet dinners have tons of extra food, so running out is not a worry.

Crashing a Sit-Down Dinner: This would be much more difficult, especially if there is assigned seats. You have to attack this early. As soon as you get there, get someone to place the extra chairs. A server will be going around taking dinner orders (filet/chicken/whatever) so make sure you get your order in. There are some rare dinners where orders are taken in advance (ie before the party), in that case you're basically screwed. But if they are taking orders, you can probably pull this off. Find out where the bridal party is sitting (it should be obvious, either a large elaborate table or a "sweethearts" table for just two people) and sit as far away from it as possible. Preferbly in the back corner of another room. When the bride/groom start coming around, try to escape, and otherwise just play it off and do a good acting job.

Most brides/grooms won't really care; they're too busy/happy/drunk to make a stink out of it. Personally, if someone freeloaded my wedding, I would want to introduce myself and make sure they are having a good time. It's all paid for in advance, so it's not going to cost them anything extra. The main thing is to act like you belong and get an extra chair/table set up in advance during the cocktail hour.

Happy hunting.