The price of attending a wedding!

notanewuser

Poppy9 wrote: »

A wedding is a one off (usually) and we want to relax and enjoy and I don't want to be driving on mountain roads in early hours of the morning having spent all day drinking water or juice! I'm not a big drinker but I do like a couple of glasses of wine with my meal.

Surely you would be fine to drive later on if you only had a couple of glasses?

I really think you're being fussy here.

notanewuser

Poppy9 wrote: »

10 minutes from home would be a £10 taxi ride - I could get lift there but wouldn't ask someone to come out at 1am for me!





When I got married, almost 30 years ago straight through weddings were not the norm down here. You married in the morning, had afternoon reception for close friends/family and then an evening do for extending family/friends.

So church at 11am for service, then onto hotel for sit down lunch etc. then everyone left about 5.30pm and came back for 7.30pm . Sounds such a faff now but that's how it happened. Hence you needed to transport them. Oh you were also expected to have a different outfit for the evening do. My mother had a day outfit and an evening outfit.

Now when one of my neices got married at 11am everyone thought she was mad as it made it a long day!

We had our ceremony and reception in one venue, but providing transport for guests between church and reception isn't really practical in most circumstances. Most will drive and park at the church. If you then take them to the reception, wine and dine them and then transport them back to the church they are stranded there as they still can't drive. They would have been better off taking the cars to the reception venue and not drinking!!!

notanewuser

As for the whole "late night welsh mountain roads" thing, that's the best time!!!

Poppy9

notanewuser wrote: »

Surely you would be fine to drive later on if you only had a couple of glasses?

I really think you're being fussy here.

The wedding ceremony isn't until 5pm so no way would I have a glass or two and then drive.

Poppy9

notanewuser wrote: »

As for the whole "late night welsh mountain roads" thing, that's the best time!!!

I may finally find a use for the sleeping bags and flask of hot tea OH insists on us taking with us in case we breakdown when we travel in bad weather!

Anatidaephobia

I've had to spend over £1000 to go to a wedding in the past. I don't regret it as it was an important family event and it was a one off combined with a weekend away. But if there had been several weddings like that in a short space of time, I couldn't have afforded it all, as hard as it might've been to turn down an invitation.

This is why I've made the decision to use a venue in my own town to cut the costs for guests and therefore maximise the number of our friends who will be able to come. Most of them will be able to get home at the end of the night for less than £10 in a taxi.

Poppy9

notanewuser wrote: »

We had our ceremony and reception in one venue, but providing transport for guests between church and reception isn't really practical in most circumstances. Most will drive and park at the church. If you then take them to the reception, wine and dine them and then transport them back to the church they are stranded there as they still can't drive. They would have been better off taking the cars to the reception venue and not drinking!!!

For my wedding the buses took them home to their houses. Assume people got a lift or taxi to church. The wedding invite asked the to indicate if they wished to use the transport when they RSVP to the wedding so I could plan the buses.

Last wedding I went to last year we drove to reception and left our car there and went home in minibus which a group of us had organised. We then collected our cars the next day. We did consider camping nearby as there was a campsite next door at the beach but decided a minibus was better than relying on good weather to camp.

honeybean

When my friend got married she organised a coach to go around picking people up at pre arranged places at specific times, if you were not there tough and we ended up with a coach load for her reception, we also all put money in a hat to help with the cost as even at a fiver each it helped with the cost. It meant no organising lifts etc and trying to find the venue . The only down point is we had to spend about a hour on the coach while it drove around picking people up but that is small price to pay . My dad also organised a minibus for my wedding which helped a lot of people where I got married parking was a nightmare .
My cousin is also getting married in Italy it is costing me about £200 all in and that is bb accomadation and flights, think that is worth it as I get to spend some time in Italy so am happy any more than that then I would of had to say no .

notanewuser

Poppy9 wrote: »

I may finally find a use for the sleeping bags and flask of hot tea OH insists on us taking with us in case we breakdown when we travel in bad weather!

I thought the problem was the roads late at night??

Are you more likely to break down at night? (In nearly 20 years of driving I've only ever broken down once, in the morning, when my clutch went on the M4!)

notanewuser

Poppy9 wrote: »

For my wedding the buses took them home to their houses. Assume people got a lift or taxi to church. The wedding invite asked the to indicate if they wished to use the transport when they RSVP to the wedding so I could plan the buses.

Last wedding I went to last year we drove to reception and left our car there and went home in minibus which a group of us had organised. We then collected our cars the next day. We did consider camping nearby as there was a campsite next door at the beach but decided a minibus was better than relying on good weather to camp.

Ah. There's the difference. I've been to 2 weddings local to where I live in 36 years (excluding my own!). Every other wedding has been at least 100 miles away, so overnight stays or late night drives have been part of the territory!