Bad Manners and Brimstone

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. . . my partner and I were invited to a friend's wedding. After dinner, the MC asked for all the "single people" to come up to the front of the room. My partner and I did not consider ourselves single, so we stayed put. Then the MC started calling out the "single people" by name, and he specifically named my partner and I (among others).

So we went up to the front, where the MC announced that all the "single people" would be playing a game, which involved randomly pairing up (male-female) and popping balloons... without using our hands! The first team to burst their balloon (using only their bodies) would win.

My partner immediately turned on his heel and sat down. I stayed, and was randomly paired with the groom's teenage cousin (I was 30 years old). So all the "single people" started playing this game, while all the married folks sat there watching, and grinning at us. Mercifully another team managed to pop their balloon quite quickly, and it was over. The MC asked for a "round of applause for all the single people!".

If this was a professional MC that the bridal couple had hired, or even if it was a friend or relation asked to fill this role, it's possible that when he asked for a list of the single guests they had no idea he was going to subject them to this kind of embarrassing 'game'.  Even so, like you I'm surprised they would have classed you and you partner as single. Maybe it was someone else, say the bride's mother, who was asked? I can see a person of a previous generation taking a much narrower view of who is or is not entitled to be considered a 'couple'; also, she might not necessarily know the living arrangements of her daughter's friends, and just go by the fact that you weren't Mr and Mrs.

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To add insult to injury, when I returned to my table, I'd discovered that the waitstaff had come around offering shots of premium spirits for everyone who was sitting down... which meant in practice, all the "single people" missed out on the shots. (I have no idea whether this was intentional timing or not).

I would certainly assume, unless I had positive evidence to the contrary, that the wait staff weren't in any way coordinating their serving with the MC's high jinks: that they were under instructions to serve a round of spirits after dinner had been finished and cleared, and so that's what they did.

I should point out that married or not, no one is obligated to take part in activities like this. The partner who sat down was well within his rights and was in no way rude. Hectoring people to take part in these games is the rudeness.