The Sunday Mail
Tendai Mbirimi
While some people crash a wedding for the free food and drinks, others just want to join the party and share in the fun.
You cannot blame them — weddings are fun. And in Africa where it takes a community to raise a child, it is also a community’s responsibility to share in the celebration of the wedding of a member of the community.
For some people, the number of people in attendance at one’s wedding is directly tied to that person’s popularity and standing in the community.
On the wedding day, particularly those weddings where invitations happen not to be restricted, uninvited guests can range from distant relatives, forgotten friends, heart-broken ex-lovers, childhood foes, to family enemies and envious but curious “frenemies”.
It is common knowledge that the wedding party spends months rehearsing and investing fortunes for their day to be a memorable day.
Nonetheless, picture the chaos when uninvited visitants, some evidently under the influence of that stuff that gives Dutch courage, make their surprise attack.
What then is the role of wedding ushers? Unlike security personnel, ushers are ambassadors of goodwill who show guests their level of consideration.
Ushers should dress tastefully, and must always be friendly, diplomatic and ready to welcome guests and file them according to the pre-arranged format.
Wedding ushers assist arriving guests to acclimatise to the wedding venue and programme of the day.
They answer questions, give directions, pass messages, adjust seating, help the elderly, take children to the play centre, and handle unforeseen mid-ceremony disturbances.
Rather than flex muscles, ushers settle the spat with wedding crashers harmoniously, thereby ensuring an undisrupted flow of the programme.
Although, we often think of ushers as uniformly dressed boys and girls, this is not an absolute picture.
The roles mentioned above require that men, ladies, boys and girls of discretion and competence be assigned the tasks.
However, for easy of identification, uniform attire makes things easier and adds flavour and colour.
Assigning self-centred, bigoted and tactless individuals creates chaos.
Dressing and posture are good for communication, but language is uppermost.
“The bride and groom kindly request you to be seated in the second row,” said with a smile will charm even the most difficult person — invited or not.
Ushers are a necessary part of any public event.
This calls for ushers to continually remind themselves that they are not security personnel, but ambassadors of honour for the bride, groom and event at large.
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