Etiquette question

[j4]

If someone invites you to a party, and the invitation doesn't say "bring partners" (but does imply that it's okay to bring friends), and your partners are not on the invite list in their own right, is it rude to email and ask whether it's okay to bring partners? Would it be rude (even ruder?) to just bring partners anyway (on the basis that they are my friends as well)? Or should one assume that if the partners in question were welcome in the first place, they would have been on the invite list?

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I'd say partners were definitely friends. Some people have a tendency to assume that an invite to one person is an automatic invite to another and therefore don't bother with a second invite (it's rude, but sometimes quite understandable). So I wouldn't necessarily take one person's absence from a list as a deliberate snub or hint that you shouldn't take them. (However, if you suspect they might not be welcome that might merit a discreet email.)