As a wedding guest, there are several cardinal sins one mustn't commit. Bringing a plus one - without being offered the option - is probably up there, as is showing up late to the ceremony. And of course, wearing white is the ultimate faux pas, guaranteed to get you blacklisted from future gatherings.
Whether intentional or not, wearing white to a wedding that isn't your own is going to ruffle more than a few feathers - which is what one woman "accidentally" did when she attended her cousin's 'surprise' ceremony.
Taking to the forum 'Am I the Asshole' on Reddit - a space for people to seek advice from the strangers of the internet on their most pressing moral dilemmas - the woman explained anonymously that the unexpected nuptials took place after the christening of the couple's baby.
The woman said the couple had eloped some months previously but had yet to hold a ceremony for family and friends. Last week, she received a last-minute invite to the christening of their nine-month-old child.
"The christening was on Saturday which is what I received the invite [for]. Only it wasn't JUST a christening. They also had a surprise wedding ceremony and reception along with the christening," the woman explained.
"None of us were aware and everyone was surprised. The reception would happen either way for the christening, only now it was a joint event.
"[For] christenings in my country, there's no rule about colours and nothing bans you from wearing white, so I wore a white dress with some pink details.
"It was me and a couple of other girls who wore white and at first everyone ignored us, but once the surprise wedding happened, everyone started looking at us judgmentally as if we did it on purpose."
The woman claimed her cousin had treated her coldly throughout the reception and would "barely" address her or acknowledge her presence.
"Yesterday morning, the morning after the event, she texted me saying how I should be more aware and mindful and how I [should have played] it safe and [worn] another colour either way," the woman continued.
"She said that she won't take responsibility for the negative attention me and the other girls who wore white received, and we should be more careful in the future."
The woman then turned to the readers to ask if she was indeed the asshole in this predicament, acknowledging she "didn't play it safe" by wearing another colour.
An influx of responses swiftly concluded that the woman was not the asshole and in fact, her cousin was glaringly to blame.
"Clearly NTA [not the asshole], you had no idea it was a wedding and it's very common for people to wear white to a summer christening. Once she cools off she will realise she is being TA [the asshole]. If she wanted a dress code she should have let people know in advance," one said.
"If your guests don't know they're at a wedding, they shouldn't be expected to follow wedding etiquette before they know it's a wedding," a second agreed.
"Tell her you promise to wear a different colour at her next wedding," a third quipped.
"Why on earth would ANYONE expect guests at a baby christening to 'play it safe' by not wearing white, just in case a surprise wedding breaks out? That's got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard," a fourth exclaimed, with another adding: "Anything could be a wedding by that logic."
"Going to work... let's remember not to wear white because there could be a wedding! Off to get groceries at the supermarket, remember 'no wearing white, could encounter a wedding'," a reader joked.
Another noted that she could see why the cousin was upset, but she had no one but herself to blame for the confusion as there had been no set dress code.
"She invited you to a christening and you went dressed suitably. But then she changed what the event was, and now there's a different dress code. You had no way to know. You know you weren't in the wrong, as others did the same thing."
Last year, the internet was in an uproar after a photo emerged of a woman wearing a white, bridal-style gown to her son and daughter-in-law's wedding.
