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That depends on the function. For weddings, church services, theater performances, and business functions, it's best to arrive on time. For holiday and cocktail parties, several etiquette guides agree on a half-hour window. For a late-night wingding, all bets are off. How do we know this? A Yahoo! Search on "fashionably late etiquette" resulted in a plethora of handy tutorials for the socially curious. At the top of the heap, columnist Elizabeth Wellington claims that being fashionably late
is out of date -- "promptness is the latest trend at social gatherings these days." But while it's impolite to show up late, it can be downright fatal to show up early. For business functions, the manly resource Ask Men advises to "never be early," but also notes that "thirty minutes late should represent a barrier you don't want to cross." For more casual gatherings or parties that start "around 10-ish," arrival time comes down to personal preference. As this article from the USC college paper points out, you can show up late and look cool, or show up on time while there's still alcohol.
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